Tourism As A Lifeline When Islands Need Us Most

A Category Five on the map changes how you think about travel. We revisit the hard lessons of Katrina and apply them to Jamaica and the wider Caribbean right now, asking what smart preparation looks like when an island’s only exit may be a runway that closes days ahead of landfall. From insurance that actually pays when flights shift and hotel nights stretch, to simple steps like embassy registration and offline copies of IDs, we lay out a clear plan to travel wiser without losing the heart that makes trips worth taking.

We also talk about why tourism isn’t just leisure in places like Jamaica. It’s payroll for housekeepers, captains, and cooks; it’s school fees and rent; it’s the engine that restarts communities after debris is cleared. When the time is right and local authorities give the all-clear, returning with intention becomes a real way to help. Book local, tip fairly, and bring patience for supply delays and shorter menus. Your presence can be a small but meaningful act of recovery.

Along the way, we share field-tested advice: what “cancel for any reason” actually means, how to document closures for claims, why moving early beats moving perfectly on an island, and how to choose relief organizations that direct funds where they’re needed. If you’ve got a Jamaica trip on your bucket list—or clients and loved ones in the path—this guide gives you tools to protect your plans and support people on the ground. 

Looking for ways to help?

Support Jamaica – Official Disaster Relief & Recovery Portal

UNICEF - Hurricane Melissa Relief

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Chapters

• 0:15 Remembering Katrina’s Impact
• 1:45 A New Category Five Targets Jamaica
• 3:28 Travel Risks And Prepared Planning
• 4:12 What Travel Insurance Actually Covers
• 7:45 Island Realities And Relief Links

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:15

Hey, so um I one thing I will say, not definitely just keeping it real. Um as we were going back and researching all about our time warp in 2005, um some of the research came across that didn't really fit into our other episode, but I just wanted to bring it up because it is very relevant right now. Um, is 2005 was the year of Katrina, hurricane Katrina, the category five hurricane that slammed uh New Orleans and the outlying regions. Um it was catastrophic. There was billions of dollars worth of damage, there was death, uh, there was it was horrific. Um and I just think it's important now as we have another category five storm rolling up onto us. Um I think it's important that we just, you know, say that our hearts are going out to the people of Jamaica, just like um everybody back in Katrina. And um just wanted to kind of bring it up. It wasn't all about the low rise dreams and the Xbox um and the flip phone. There was some serious things that happened, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01: 1:25

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you know, that was definitely a time that I I know we remember very clearly and when all that happened and all the disaster relief that was needed and required afterwards, and just all the time it took. I mean, it took years for the city to get cleaned up and all the areas to get rebuilt, families to find each other, et cetera. Like it was just such such a time. Um, and now, like you said, we're seeing another category five heading for, you know, not a mainland area, but a small island that is in a lot of danger. Um and, you know, with both of us being in travel, you know, this is definitely a concern on money levels, right? Our heart goes out to the people of Jamaica, everyone who lives there, who's traveling there, and just their safety in general, and also just anyone who's thought about planning a trip there even in the next year, just as a caution to them, um, just to be careful and everything, especially on the travel side, as resorts are locking down, all of that stuff. So yeah, and I definitely think it's good that we're taking a minute to acknowledge this.

SPEAKER_00: 2:38

Yeah, and um and as travel agents, we are constantly booking people on all of their bucket list destinations, which you do know that Jamaica is on a lot of people's, and um you never know when disasters are gonna strike. I mean, I feel like with the we have got more advanced warning in with weather these days, but we have clients that are still stranded on Jamaica because that airport closed like a week out before before the hurricane even struck. So I mean, I think that you can never be overly prepared uh for when you're booking your dream trip and you gotta kind of take precautions because you never know what you're gonna encounter. So I think just briefly, let's talk about the importance of I I mean, I know you agree with this, but I'm always all about travel insurance when you're going on vacation because you don't know what's gonna happen, right?

SPEAKER_01: 3:35

Right, right. And I think that's a topic that um even some people might not know what all it covers. But I mean, it's not just covering the cost of your trip, right? If there's a natural disaster. So for example, let's say you are currently, you know, on an island that's about to get hit or you know, during a storm and you are covered by insurance and you need to evacuate or adjust your hotel nights, redo your flights. Okay, it covers all of that stuff. Um, even if you were to get injured or hurt, you know, God forbid, or anything like that, it does cover medical costs and everything. So it's not just about protecting the money you spend on your vacation, it's also protecting all the unseen things, right? You know, as travel agents, we do our best, we do our research, but I can't control the weather, I can't control, you know, construction means.

SPEAKER_00: 4:23

What kind of travel agent are you? Right?

SPEAKER_01: 4:25

I know, right? I mean, I I'm pretty good, but I am I'm not all that, you know. Um, but yeah, just a reminder to definitely be prepared for things we can't control. Um and uh Katrina was definitely an example. I mean, we knew it was a hurricane, we knew it was coming, but the devastation in the aftermath was not something we could have planned for.

SPEAKER_00: 4:44

Right. And what I will say, so there are obviously a lot of similarities to Katrina was a cat five, Melissa coming into Jamaica is a cat five. Um but at least for Katrina, there was roads out. They might have been blocked, but at least there's roads. This is an island. Jamaica is an island in the middle of the Caribbean, like there's nowhere to go except up. They're trying to get up to a higher ground, but then there's mudslides, or we're looking at 30 inches of rain. I mean, my heart goes out to the people of Jamaica, just as I did to Katrina. I just it's it's it's just heartbreaking, but you just have to we'll put links in there because there's gonna need to be um cleanup. But remember that Jamaica is an island that is basing itself on tourism. So let's just have hearts right now and let's help, and we'll put links for Red Cross and and any reading funds. Jackie will go ahead and throw links in there. But I think we need to remember to be patient while there um is not, you know, Jamaica is a bucket list uh place to go and the resorts are beautiful, but there's people that live on that island. So, you know, my heart go monk goes out to those people on this island that this is their home, you know, beyond the resort gates, this is their home. Yeah. So when they start cleaning up, we need to be ready to come back as tourists and be there to help, you know, re-energize that island.

SPEAKER_01: 6:10

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And even just, you know, when you're thinking about paying for a vacation and maybe you're looking at the price, like, oh wow, you know, that's a lot to just spend on staying in a room at a resort. But it's a little bit more than that. Like when you talk about the local people, if we're not there traveling, they don't have a job to go to to continue to make money, to rebuild their lives. So, yes, a vacation can be a conscious, helpful thing to do, you know, for other people. And especially coming through with Jamaica, like you said, tourism is their main part of their economy. So they are going to need the cleanup help and they are going to need their businesses and their jobs to come back as soon as possible. Um, so yeah, so like Denise said, we will be putting in links for you know the direct relief, the Red Cross, um, any other information that we can find. Um, and especially things like even um with the embassy down there for anyone traveling. One quick note that we did kind of want to point out if you're in another country, um, traveling internationally, etc., it is always a good idea to register with the U.S. Embassy to know, you know, where you are, where you're going to be. Okay. And that can be just for yourself, for precautions. God forbid, if anything were to happen, it does help your loved ones and your family in helping them find you if they were ever in that situation. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 7:30

Which we hope is not the case, but absolutely uh we're just trying to point out as travel agents things that we should you should be thinking about um beforehand and if you're there.

SPEAKER_01: 7:43

Still work, you can still we will have all of those links down there for you guys and get that out there. And you know, absolutely please feel free to donate um anything you can, right? Obviously, it's a little different, it's not something we can, you know, drive down to like New Orleans. We we can all kind of come together and help, but there are still things that we can do for Jamaica.

SPEAKER_00: 8:02

Yeah, absolutely. And we definitely want to travel smart. And um, just wanted to take a minute to have our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Jamaica and honestly, whoever else is in the path, because I know it's not over when it's Jamaica. I mean, it's headed up over Cuba, it's headed up to uh you know the Caribbean. There's a lot of little islands in there, um, Bahamas and NASA, Trips and Caicos, all those little islands. So we are thinking of our friends and families and the Caribbean, and um do what you can't, and just stay safe out there, people. All right, bye bye, guys.