Two Hurricanes In Rapid Succession.

[sandyRoe]

First Houston bore the brunt, now islands in the Caribbean are being battered by the elements.
Could these storms be a consequence of global warming or are two in close proximity not really as unusual as they might first seem?

[Berniecuddles2]

peter you don't get out much...do you?

[youngmafbog]

Only for his daily injections.

[-Talbot-]

Global warming isn't bothering me right now, the daughter being in Dominican Republic is.

[sandyRoe]

Talbot,
I'm sure she'll be safe, and what a story she'll have to tell when she gets back.

[Tilly2]

Hurricane season or not, global warming or not, it must be awful for the people affected.

[-Talbot-]

She and the boyfriend are flying to Toronto tonight, British Airways are paying the flight from Toronto back to the UK.

The hotel were asking for £250 to stay another night ... ***

[237SJ]

My friend was supposed to be going to Antigua tomorrow. Of course, they are not going but the hotels over there haven't been very helpful as far as rebooking is concerned. The airlines have been great though

[Zacs-Master]

It's the Caribbean, it's the tropics, its planet earth which has a quirky 23deg tilt to its axis. Don't like it? Move. ;-)

[237SJ]

These hurricanes are fierce though and I have been going to the Caribbean in September for years.

[Prudie]

I've been keeping an eye on the Antigua news as I go there every Christmas and it seems to have passed through with far less impact than expected although Virgin and BA have brought people home early I gather.

[jno]

hurricanes should be well gone by Christmas, Prudie? All you have to worry about is reindeer blown off course.

[Prudie]

No I know, just explaining why i read their online paper on a daily basis - like to keep abreast of who's been shot or stabbed :-)

[237SJ]

^ I think that is a little unfair

[Prudie]

Do you read the Antigua Observer? I'm not exaggerating, it's a fact

[237SJ]

No but I do have friends there and in St Lucia as well and I know that there have been problems (also in St Kitts but they have done a good job of keeping that quiet) That is not the sum of the people or the islands though.

[Prudie]

I'm well aware that Antiguans are particularly friendly but crime, especially gun crime is rife and many perpetrators go uncaught. We were mugged ourselves on the beach in the middle of the day last year. My husband was hit on the back of the head. Two days later a British tourist visiting his parents was shot in the head leaving him blind and brain damaged. No-one has been caught. There is a shooting nearly every week and the tourist industry and local police try to keep it quiet. Anyway I've blown off topic.

[237SJ]

I know that. Ever got lost whilst driving through St John's? It's like a ghetto. Tourists think that the Caribbean islands are all white sand and smiley people but it is not like that inland away from hotels.

[Prudie]

Tourists who pay the big bucks and stay in AI gated hotels only see that side. We can't afford that so do our own thing which brings risk. Some of the suburbs of St Johns are downright scary.

[237SJ]

I know a lovely guy who runs the beach services in a hotel in Antigua. One day, he said that he didn't get on with his aunty and he "wanted to put a hit on her" I asked if "putting a hit on her" means what I think it means and he said that it does. It`s a different world.

[Prudie]

My best friend (she's ex BA cabin crew actually) lived in Trinidad. She said she never went to the beach as it wasn't safe and her husband took a gun out with him wherever he went. I'm not meaning to tar them all but there is less of a value put on life out there.