Hi Steve. I'm afraid you probably won't know anything until much later in the week.

We were due to go to Cancun, Mexico in Oct 2005 on a Sunday morning flight. Tropical storm Wilma was showing on the National Hurricane site as early as Monday that week and by Friday hit Cancun as a Force 5 hurricane. Our flight wasn't cancelled until the Friday evening and we were told the late cancellation was because hurricane activity is so unpredictable and the course could have veered at the last minute. On a more positive note, Thomas Cook bent over backwards to find us a suitable alternative (difficult given that we wanted to travel the next day, wanted a 5* AI and that it was also half term) and offered an immediate full refund if we wanted to cancel.

Hopefully Hanna and Ike will not affect Cuba and your holiday can go ahead as planned.

Thanks much for the reply. Looks like i just have to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Hopefully Cuba won't be hit as they could do with a break.

Probably completely wrong forum but here goes. HELP ! Supposed to be flying from Manchester to Varadero on friday morning but with Hurricane Hanna and now Ike building up I am not sure if holiday will go ahead. Who do I need to contact and when to find out . Any info greatly appreciated . Cheers Steve

Hi Steve, Cuba is the only place in the Caribbean that I would ever considerr flying to during the hurricane season and I wouldn't panic just yet. Your holiday will probably still end up being able to go ahead even if Varadero is affected. This is because the Cuban authorities are really tight on their evacuation procedures for both locals and tourists. TOs and the hotel chains have to keep spare capacity during the summer and have to have an evacuation plan in place in the event of any particular resort being affected. It's worth remembering that Cuba is a big island, approx 1,000 kms in length and because most hurricanes track through from south to north, large parts of the island can be unaffected. If Vardero does turn out to be in the path of either Hanna or Ike you will be transferred to another resort. You might want to contact your TO and ask what the evacuation plan is for your hotel but it's quite possible they won't know the details - the decision will be taken by local officials - but it will be done in an orderly manner. And remember the Cubans have never had the casualties or chaos that Haiti, Mexico or the USA have had in the past because theya re so well organised and relief teams on standby just in case.

I was there in July/August 2005 visiting Santiago and Havana in the 3 week window between Derek and Emily tracking through the island and the only effect on my trip was that we couldn't go and visit an eco-village because of hurrican damage. The residents had all been moved out to an army base and hadn't yet been able to return because the damage to their houses hadn't been repaired. All the tourists had been shipped out of the city of Trinidad too prior to Derek and because of the damage to the main hotels it was still off most tour intineraries but there was only minimal damage to local housing and so casa particulares were still being allowed to take guests. We left Havana just as Emily was building up and we got some heavy rain and some spectacular thunderstorms out to sea that we watched from the Malecon but that's pretty normal for that time of year anyway.

The only real effect on our trip was that the water and power supplies were disrupted - water was delivered by tanker each day and pumped up to the roof top tanks and fresh water for drinking and cooking for the locals had to be collected from the giant 'bowesers' on the street corners. but it was still plentiful and we had no problems getting bottled water for drinking in Santiago and in Havana, the family I was staying with had been issued with their own electric water filteriing machine and we were told by them to only use that water for drinking and teethbrushing etc. They kept the fridges in our bedrooms stocked up with bottled water too. I doubt that most tourists even noticed that there were any difficulties.

The power would go off at some point most days but never for long and the most noticeable effect was that there were prolonged periods after dark when 'brownouts' would occur ie the voltage was reduced and everything would go dim! But the street lights are on different circuits to the houses and so all the locals would congregate under the street lights when this happened! And again, because the tourist hotels all tended to have their own generators I doubt that most tourists ever realised that this was happening. All the local bars and local residents had powerful re-chargeable torches at the ready and it never stopped life just carrying on. The only problem was that of course the air conditioning and fans would go off and the heat and humidity were oppressive but it's hard to escape it at that time of year at the best of times!

SM

Hanna has been downgraded to a tropical storm, nothing to panic about!