Tourists with travel plans to all these areas should contact their airline, resort or travel agent for updates.
With Gustav bearing down, New Orleans sent all its tourists out of town. The airport was scheduled to close today at 6 p.m. The New Orleans Museum of Art as well as other cultural institutions and the French Quarter were shut down in advance of the hurricane.
The downtown and tourist infrastructure just recovered from Hurricane Katrina three years ago, painstakingly rebuilding both the buildings and visitors’ confidence in the city. Tourism in New Orleans, as in Jamaica and Grand Cayman, is a lifeblood.
The prospect of destruction of all they had rebuilt seemed almost unfathomable.
Northwest Airlines and other carriers issued weather waivers for travel to New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Fort Walton Beach, Gulfport/Biloxi, Lafayette, Mobile, New Orleans, Panama City and Pensacola. Anyone set to travel to or from there through Sept. 3 could change their ticket by contacting the airline.
Information trickling in indicated that Grand Cayman had downed trees and electric poles, but hotels and resorts were operating normally, reported Cayman Net News. The hurricane passed 50 miles to the north of low-lying Grand Cayman late last week. The island was devastated by Hurricane Ivan a few years ago but completely rebuilt.
Jamaica’s east coast had wind damage and flooding, and between 11 and 18 people were reported dead. The Hope Bridge in Harbour View was washed away, and men were charging $100 to help people walk through the river from one side to the other, the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper reported. However, it added that the airport was open and many areas were spared.
Forums on Trip Advisor.com with entries from Jamaica-based residents and tourists indicated that the major hotels in Ocho Rios and Negril had mainly blown-down trees and were OK. Cruise Critic.com reported that the cruise port in Ocho Rios was intact and that Carnival Liberty would still visit it this week.
It said Carnival Legend would skip Grand Cayman this week and stop in Key West instead.
It also reported that Carnival Fantasy, which was supposed to return to Mobile, Ala. Monday, will stay at sea until Sept. 3 to allow the hurricane headed for the Gulf Coast to pass.
Cuba, where American tourists are not allowed to travel, was harder hit. Damage reports were limited.
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