Brodie MacNevin’s wedding plans
were plunged into uncertainty when Hurricanes Irma and Maria razed parts of the
Caribbean in September.
The
St. Catherines, P.E.I., native and his girlfriend Andrea were to be married in
Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba, in February. But Irma scored a direct hit on the resort
town off the country’s northeast, decimating the local airport and causeway.
Their
resort re-opened after several weeks of reconstruction efforts, but not without
some changes, said MacNevin, who now lives in Chezzetcook, N.S.
“The
resort looks different now. It used to have, I’ll say, that Cuban feel, a lot
of bright colours. During the restoration, they modernized it a little more.”
But
they had chosen the hideaway for its traditional feel, he said.
“They
had modern resorts down there that looked like a hotel here in downtown
Halifax. If you’re going to Cuba, you want to think you’re in Cuba. There’s
nothing we can do about that now.”
The
aftermath of the hurricanes had many Caribbean travellers scrambling to
determine the extent of the damage.
Holland
College Graphic Design instructor Mike Thomas had tentative plans to travel
south in March along with his wife Nancy, several relatives and friends.
Their
first reaction to the news was one of compassion for the people affected, he
said, but they soon realized they needed to do a lot more diligence.
“We
were planning on travelling down, where do we go, where can we go, how many of
these resorts have been damaged beyond repair and when are they going to be
fixed?”
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| Mike Thomas and his wife Nancy had to take hurricane damage into consideration when planning their Caribbean getaway. |
They ultimately
decided on a resort in the Dominican Republic, but the decision required a wary
eye, Thomas said.
“(The websites)
are always going to advertise the best things. They’re not going to say, ‘We’re
a wreck! Please still come down.’ They’re going to say everything’s put
together.”
Maritime
Travel counsellor Larissa Newell said their operations are now more or less
back to normal, which is surprising to some of their clients.
“A
lot of people think things are still pretty ravaged. They’re pretty surprised
to hear everything is back up and running and that Cuba recovered so quickly,
because certain areas were hit pretty bad.”
Some
cruises are being diverted to different destinations rather than the
still-damaged St. Maarten, Newell said.
Puerto
Rico was hardest hit by the hurricanes, and Newell said it’s not available as a
destination, but cruises leaving from there are going smoothly.
“But I would not
send anyone there as a destination. I know certain parts of the island still
don’t have any power.”
She
said there are no direct flights from the Maritimes to the worst-affected
areas, so those operations have not been affected.
As
for MacNevin and his fiancée, they still don’t know what to expect when they
touch down in Cayo Santa Maria.
“We’re
a little nervous about it. They probably lost some shoreline. I know they lost
all kinds of trees. The landscape’s going to be different. They don’t really
update their pictures that much.”
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