Looks terrible on the weather news. Hoping to hear positive news from @PeterGage and @Nug this morning.
Might be a while given communication difficulties. Hoping they have come through relatively unscathed. Must be a dreadful experience, though.
I was evacuated from New Orleans once back in 1998 while many of the others attending same conference chose to stay put and hunker down. That particular hurricane veered away at last minute. Can't imagine what they must have felt when they saw the devastation caused by Katrina.
Keeping everything crossed for those in Florida...
Glad that so far everyone's family is good, just waiting on Peter. Every time I see someone has posted here I hope it's him. But limey is right, power out and cell towers down and whilst I like to think of CL as the center of the universe, I imagine without power or cell reception if you can get either of those things you'll use them to get in touch with loved ones and try and figure out a way to get home.
Limey, how's your son doing? It looked live Savanah ended up taking more of a beating than expected, so glad he moved elsewhere.
Glad that so far everyone's family is good, just waiting on Peter. Every time I see someone has posted here I hope it's him. But limey is right, power out and cell towers down and whilst I like to think of CL as the center of the universe, I imagine without power or cell reception if you can get either of those things you'll use them to get in touch with loved ones and try and figure out a way to get home.
Limey, how's your son doing? It looked live Savanah ended up taking more of a beating than expected, so glad he moved elsewhere.
He's done fine, thanks, itching to go back and my fear is he'll start heading back before it's safe. He manages a restaurant, so needs to find out if there's any power for the refrigeration, or if all the food's been spoiled, as well as if his home has been damaged. He ignores my texts when he knows I won't like what he's telling me, haven't heard from him this morning. Weather is in the high nineties there, so that's going to cause some problems also.
Glad that so far everyone's family is good, just waiting on Peter. Every time I see someone has posted here I hope it's him. But limey is right, power out and cell towers down and whilst I like to think of CL as the center of the universe, I imagine without power or cell reception if you can get either of those things you'll use them to get in touch with loved ones and try and figure out a way to get home.
Limey, how's your son doing? It looked live Savanah ended up taking more of a beating than expected, so glad he moved elsewhere.
He's done fine, thanks, itching to go back and my fear is he'll start heading back before it's safe. He manages a restaurant, so needs to find out if there's any power for the refrigeration, or if all the food's been spoiled, as well as if his home has been damaged. He ignores my texts when he knows I won't like what he's telling me, haven't heard from him this morning. Weather is in the high nineties there, so that's going to cause some problems also.
Glad he's alright.
Ugh that high 90s heat and humidity without air conditioning is brutal. Hope his restaurant is OK, but I think you're right about heading back too soon.
Difficult last few days but certainly not "life threatening" during the peak of the storm, providing one was inside. Difficult but "lively" few days because of the following:
Television channels went off the air just as the gales started to pick up. This meant that at no point over an 9 hour period did we know whether or not the storm was at it's most potent point.
Next was the power. This had a considerable negative impact: no lighting whatsoever (I did have a torch). No hot food and perishable cold food had to be discarded because no cooling facilities. No air conditioning, so we sweated like whatever the proverbial saying is. No lifts, so we had to manhandle the older people (some in wheelchairs) up/down four flights of stairs. No door entry system to rooms.
At this stage all shops/stores were closed and many boarded up. We had to live for 48 hours on crisps and biscuits.
Then the internet went down followed by telephone connections.
One 85 year old man went into a hotel public toilet and in the darkness, he got disorientated and panicked. We were first aware of the situation when a banging on the wall type noise was heard. He was clearly very shaken when we retrieved him from the ladies (!) toilet and we had to assist him to his room. He recovered.
As soon as the winds started to subside, the people appeared on the streets, including four hooded youths, who were clearly opportunists, casing the back of the local mall shops, which faced our balcony.
American Airlines were fantastic and we eventually got away on Tues, when Miami Airport eventually opened. They had to reroute us and offered us three options. We flew back via Dallas/Fort Worth, arriving back into the UK this morning.
My first task tomorrow is to see what redress we have and with whom. The key issues for us were:
(a) The travel company (Travel Bag) left us out to dry in that at no time did they contact us to see if we were OK. I had to call them for alternative hotel accommodation, because our area had to be evacuated. They were not able or seemingly willing to help. We first had to go to an evacuation centre, but found alternative accommodation, thanks to the local police.
(b) They only started to look for pre-hurricane flights when we asked them to, which they were not able to do.
(c) The hotel from which we evacuated were only keen to get us out by the due time. At no point did they attempt to find us alternative accommodation, despite the fact they we eventually stayed in one from the same chain (Best Western). The next hotel to us did successfully find alternative accommodation for it's guests and arranged transportation to the alternative hotels.
(d) We were potentially exposed to considerable danger by the second hotel. We were never told about the curfew by the hotel. We could not have found out by any alterative media outlets because they were inoperable at this stage. We went out at about 2000 hours when we learnt of a Chinese takeaway opening after the hurricane. We were admonished by the hotel staff for going out because the area to which we had been evacuated was not a safe area.
Finally, if anybody has had any experience of seeking redress then I would be happy to hear from them. Thanks
I know a little bit about consumer rights in the event of holiday disruption (certainly not an expert though). There are two, possibly three avenues to pursue:
1. Travelbag is a member of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) - https://abta.com/. I believe they (ABTA) offer an Ombudsman service for managing complaints against their members. They will, at the very least, be able to advise you on what Travelbag's obligations to you were while you were stranded in the States, so that you can make a complaint to Travelbag.
Don't get fobbed off and don't let the matter drop - if you don't get a satisfactory response straight away then stick with it. Companies save a fortune in paying out for complaints because people lose interest/can't find the time to keep at them.
2. Go through your travel insurance policy, line by line and highlight the bits that you feel are relevant to you, as well as checking the exclusions. I would do this before you speak to your insurer, so you have an idea of what you're entitled to.
3. Probably not a great chance of success with this, but may be worth speaking to your credit/debit card issuer (whichever one you used to pay for your holiday). You may have a claim under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act:
Under section 75, in certain circumstances, the provider of credit is equally liable with the provider of goods or services in cases where there has been misrepresentation or a breach of contract.
The Consumer Credit Act only applies to credit card transactions, although you get similar coverage with your debit card these days, worth looking into.
Glad you got home in one piece, Peter. You may find it difficult to get much recompense for an 'Act of God' but certainly sounded terrible the way some of the travelco's just abandoned people to their own devices.
Your posts have brought home what it's really like to be caught up in something like that. As far as I have understood from previous posts - and apologies if wrong - you are not in the first flush of youth yourself but it sounds like you have provided comfort and leadership to a lot of your fellow refugees from the storm. Hats off to you, sir.
PS we were utter dogshite last night. And it wasn't the ref's fault :-)
Comments
I was evacuated from New Orleans once back in 1998 while many of the others attending same conference chose to stay put and hunker down. That particular hurricane veered away at last minute. Can't imagine what they must have felt when they saw the devastation caused by Katrina.
Keeping everything crossed for those in Florida...
Well, you buy this stuff, I suppose you've got to use it!
The city is under a Tropical Storm warning for the first time in history (quite impressive considering we are 5 hours from the nearest coastline)
Days like these when you wished you didn't live in a wooden bungalow
Hope everyone else's friends and relatives were as lucky.
Limey, how's your son doing? It looked live Savanah ended up taking more of a beating than expected, so glad he moved elsewhere.
@DanDavis are you doing okay?
Ugh that high 90s heat and humidity without air conditioning is brutal. Hope his restaurant is OK, but I think you're right about heading back too soon.
Difficult last few days but certainly not "life threatening" during the peak of the storm, providing one was inside. Difficult but "lively" few days because of the following:
Television channels went off the air just as the gales started to pick up. This meant that at no point over an 9 hour period did we know whether or not the storm was at it's most potent point.
Next was the power. This had a considerable negative impact: no lighting whatsoever (I did have a torch). No hot food and perishable cold food had to be discarded because no cooling facilities. No air conditioning, so we sweated like whatever the proverbial saying is. No lifts, so we had to manhandle the older people (some in wheelchairs) up/down four flights of stairs. No door entry system to rooms.
At this stage all shops/stores were closed and many boarded up. We had to live for 48 hours on crisps and biscuits.
Then the internet went down followed by telephone connections.
One 85 year old man went into a hotel public toilet and in the darkness, he got disorientated and panicked. We were first aware of the situation when a banging on the wall type noise was heard. He was clearly very shaken when we retrieved him from the ladies (!) toilet and we had to assist him to his room. He recovered.
As soon as the winds started to subside, the people appeared on the streets, including four hooded youths, who were clearly opportunists, casing the back of the local mall shops, which faced our balcony.
American Airlines were fantastic and we eventually got away on Tues, when Miami Airport eventually opened. They had to reroute us and offered us three options. We flew back via Dallas/Fort Worth, arriving back into the UK this morning.
My first task tomorrow is to see what redress we have and with whom. The key issues for us were:
(a) The travel company (Travel Bag) left us out to dry in that at no time did they contact us to see if we were OK. I had to call them for alternative hotel accommodation, because our area had to be evacuated. They were not able or seemingly willing to help. We first had to go to an evacuation centre, but found alternative accommodation, thanks to the local police.
(b) They only started to look for pre-hurricane flights when we asked them to, which they were not able to do.
(c) The hotel from which we evacuated were only keen to get us out by the due time. At no point did they attempt to find us alternative accommodation, despite the fact they we eventually stayed in one from the same chain (Best Western). The next hotel to us did successfully find alternative accommodation for it's guests and arranged transportation to the alternative hotels.
(d) We were potentially exposed to considerable danger by the second hotel. We were never told about the curfew by the hotel. We could not have found out by any alterative media outlets because they were inoperable at this stage. We went out at about 2000 hours when we learnt of a Chinese takeaway opening after the hurricane. We were admonished by the hotel staff for going out because the area to which we had been evacuated was not a safe area.
Finally, if anybody has had any experience of seeking redress then I would be happy to hear from them. Thanks
Glad you have got home safely.
I know a little bit about consumer rights in the event of holiday disruption (certainly not an expert though). There are two, possibly three avenues to pursue:
1. Travelbag is a member of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) - https://abta.com/. I believe they (ABTA) offer an Ombudsman service for managing complaints against their members. They will, at the very least, be able to advise you on what Travelbag's obligations to you were while you were stranded in the States, so that you can make a complaint to Travelbag.
Don't get fobbed off and don't let the matter drop - if you don't get a satisfactory response straight away then stick with it. Companies save a fortune in paying out for complaints because people lose interest/can't find the time to keep at them.
2. Go through your travel insurance policy, line by line and highlight the bits that you feel are relevant to you, as well as checking the exclusions. I would do this before you speak to your insurer, so you have an idea of what you're entitled to.
3. Probably not a great chance of success with this, but may be worth speaking to your credit/debit card issuer (whichever one you used to pay for your holiday). You may have a claim under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act:
Under section 75, in certain circumstances, the provider of credit is equally liable with the provider of goods or services in cases where there has been misrepresentation or a breach of contract.
The Consumer Credit Act only applies to credit card transactions, although you get similar coverage with your debit card these days, worth looking into.
Hope that helps. Have a quick read through this as well - http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/package-travel-regulations#post-departure-changes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-41251811
Glad that you're safely home.
Happy to check through your travel policy and advise if you send over to me.
Fantastic to hear you are safe and well.
Your posts have brought home what it's really like to be caught up in something like that. As far as I have understood from previous posts - and apologies if wrong - you are not in the first flush of youth yourself but it sounds like you have provided comfort and leadership to a lot of your fellow refugees from the storm. Hats off to you, sir.
PS we were utter dogshite last night. And it wasn't the ref's fault :-)