There is a certain irony that Fishburn Hedges director Sue Stapely
was responsible for the PR for the Environment Agency’s Flood Awareness
Campaign, given her unfortunate experience while on holiday in the
Caribbean.
Stapely looked forward to much sun while holidaying in Anguilla, only to
get caught up in a major hurricane.
’The first week was all right, but the islanders said it was
uncharacteristically cloudy,’ she explains.
Then the hurricane came. Normally these last for 24 hours, but this
beast raged on for two days, turning fields and roads into a complex
inland waterway.
As a result, Stapely was marooned in her apartment, sans food, light,
phones, or any power for 48 hours.
Although there was water, water everywhere, the taps and - horror -
toilet did not work; Stapely had to scoop the water off the floor to
flush.
’The worst thing was not being able to contact my children back in
England to say we were alive,’ she says.
At least nobody died in the inundation, but many goats drowned in the
local fields.
The hurricane passed, but the nightmare was not over. She had to survive
a resentful posse of Americans, who wanted to sue everyone at the
airport because they could not get a flight. Getting off the island at
last, the normal 12-hour journey home lasted 36.
To make it worse, she still hasn’t got her luggage back.
Next time try Blackpool.
