One of our readers sent us a photograph (attached) of two slats from the vinyl roller hurricane shutters he removed from his apartment in Lime Tree Bay over the weekend. He has replaced them with aluminium ones.

These original vinyl ones failed during Hurricane Ivan. The photographs show the reason why.

If you look closely you will see the slat on the left is completely open. There is no aluminium I-beams inserted in the three spaces. Compare with the one on the right that has two.

Our reader, Chip Ogilvie, said, “My guess is that the industrious crew stripped the I beams out before getting to the job site and got some extra beer money!”

I am not sure about that. Another possibility is that the aluminium I-beams were removed before the shutters actually arrived here on Grand Cayman and it wasn’t noticed by the crew when they fixed the shutters.

Mr. Ogilvie also said it was “In all likelihood the original failure could be blamed on the lack of I beams and not the fact that the shutters were vinyl.

He suggested we warn the public to have their slats inspected if they had any vinyl shutters installed since Ivan.

This warning we gladly publish.

CHECK YOUR HURRICANE SHUTTER SLATS. MORE ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE VINYL!!