Timeshare Owners Wary. Hurricane Emily on course for Jamaica, Cayman Islands, and Mexico’s Yucatan Penninsula

Hurricane Emily will hit Jamaica in the next 24 hours; a hurricane warning is in effect for the entire island. Meanwhile, Grenada assesses storm damage. Timeshare owners are wary of storm.

Hurricane Emily’s course is predicted to take it past the island nation of Jamaica within the next 24 hours. A hurricane warning remains in effect for the entire island. A hurricane watch is also in effect for the Cayman Islands. With winds gusting as high as 135 miles per hour, Emily is the second major hurricane to hit this area of the world in the past two weeks and has timeshare owners on edge.

On the Cayman Islands, timeshare owners and residents alike eye the storm’s approach nervously. With the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries forming the formidable backbone of these islands’ infrastructure, a holiday paradise like this can ill afford a brush with Emily.

Mexican authorities have advised people staying on or near the Yucatan penninsula to prepare for hurricane conditions. The storm is expected to collide with the Mexican coast sometime next week. This region encompasses the highly-publicized “Riviera Maya” area of Mexico, with miles of coastline and innumerable resorts catering to the vacationing public.

Grenada is starting to pick up the pieces left after this latest hurricane, but the damage is significant. Flooding in low-lying areas has left many people homeless on an island still recovering from previous storms. A meeting of Grenada’s National Emergency Advisory Council (NEAC) was held yesterday at 4:00 p.m. local time. In attendance were all the District Disaster Coordinators and key stakeholders. A detailed Damage Assessment Report was submitted for each district, but there are no official figures yet as to how bad the damage actually is. So far, these reports have determined that one fatality resulted, when a man in St. Patrick North was killed when his home was destroyed by a mudslide.

Year-round Residents Face Greater Challenges than do Timeshare Owners

Analysts predict that the tourism industry in these areas will be hit hardest by this storm, but agriculture will be devastated as well. This problem can be expected to worsen, especially in Jamaica. In the trail of Hurricane Ivan, last year the price of most foodstuffs jumped sharply in response to massive crop damage from flooding and high winds. Jamaica is still trying to recover from Ivan as well as more recent hurricanes. With another potentially deadly storm poised offshore, the >prognosis looks grim.

The year-round inhabitants of these islands will of course be hardest hit by this disaster, but seasonal residents can expect considerable property damages as a result. Those who own timeshares in this part of the world can do little but watch and wait, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.