An update on a local couple, Monika and Michael Ladouceur, who are stuck at their hotel in Turks and Caicos.

A social media post says they’re safe and sound this morning (Friday) with another comment that the airport is flooded so there’s no word on when they can get home.

Hurricane Irma battered the Turks and Caicos as a category 5 storm.

The extent of the devastation is unclear as communications went down as the storm slammed into the islands.

 

Meantime, Chris Mayne of Mayne Travel tells us they have no clients in the path of Hurricane Irma.

But he says it’s important for people who have booked trips to the Caribbean later in the year to follow Irma’s path over the next few days to see if they’re impacted.

“It will be impacting Dominican Republic, Punta Cana, Puerto Plata and the north coast of Cuba in the next couple of days. It’s about keeping an eye of the track of the storm and see what areas are impacted,” he says.

Mayne says historically it doesn’t take long for travel destinations to get up and running again after a storm but this current hurricane is more serious than other years and if a resort is destroyed it could take a while to rebuild.

“One of the resorts in St. Martin has been substantially damaged and they’ve already decided to close for the next 4 months to rebuild and repair so people booked in that resort will have to look for a new resort,” he says.

With files from The Canadian Press

(PHOTO: In this Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, photo, damage is left after Hurricane Irma hit Barbuda. Hurricane Irma battered the Turks and Caicos Islands early Friday as the fearsome Category 5 storm continued a rampage through the Caribbean that has killed a number of people, with Florida in its sights. (AP Photo/Anika E. Kentish)

 

Filed under: hurricane, Irma, Mayne Travel