News
2008-09-09
Islanders Take
Shelter at Hotel Dante
Any shelter in
the storm -- even if it has a gay past.
As a series of
hurricanes continues to wreak havoc in the Caribbean,
Any shelter in
the storm -- even if it has a gay past.
As a series of
hurricanes continues to wreak havoc in the Caribbean,
residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands, nearly destroyed
Sunday by the category 4, 135-mph Hurricane Ike, are
receiving some relief. Locals have been invited to
take shelter at the Turks Head Mansion on Grand Turk
Island, the setting for Hotel Dante in season 1 of the here!
Networks series Dante’s Cove. The luxury
accommodations were among the few of the island's
structures not demolished by the hurricane.
According to the
Associated Press, nearly every structure on the
small islands of Turks and Caicos suffered some damage from
the hurricane. According to eye witness accounts,
homes were missing roofs, boats sunk and the bulk of
the islands residents left looking for shelter.
Turks and Caicos
premier Michael Misick said people who didn’t
ride out the storm in shelters cowered in closets and under
stairwells "just holding on for life. They got hit
really, really bad," Misick said, according to AP. "A
lot of people have lost their house, and we will have
to see what we can do to accommodate them."
Early reports
suggested it was too soon to know of a death toll.
"I've been living
in the Caribbean for 25 years and I've never seen this
kind of destruction," Giora Israel, senior vice president of
strategic planning forCarnival Corp., told the
Associated Press.
Tourism is the
primary source of income for Grand Turk. With a population
of just under 4,000 people, many of the island’s
residents work for the government, but the cruise ship
industry is the largest private sector employer.
For more
information on relief efforts in Turks and Caicos, visit the
Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency at www.CDERA.org or make a
donation to relief efforts through the International
Red Cross at www.IFRC.org. For more
information on the Turks Head Mansion, visit www.TurksHeadMansion.com.(The
Advocate)
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 1