A couple who spent £1,200 on a dream holiday to Cuba are now claiming compensation after they were flown into the path of Hurricane Georges, writes Andrew Ffrench.

John Saunders, 47, and his wife Sue, 44, of Grundy Crescent, Kennington, booked a two-week break to the island resort of Cayo Largo .

But because tour operators feared the resort would be hit by the hurricane, they re-directed the plane to Havana.

Mr Saunders and his wife were part of a 150-strong group of tourists who were told to stay in a hotel for five days "for their own safety" - and were then hit by the hurricane.

At the end of the five-day stay in Havana, the couple and other tourists were flown to their original destination Cayo Largo, which had escaped the chaotic effects of the hurricane.

Mr Saunders said: "We arrived in Havana on the Tuesday and holiday reps directed us to the Hotel Trinton.

"Three days later Hurricane Georges struck and we had to take cover. Coaches were brought in, just in case we needed to be evacuated but in the end it was decided that it would be safer if we stayed in the hotel. "It's just as well we did because the hurricane ripped the roof of one of the coaches right off. Trees outside were being uprooted and the patio doors were blown in.

"From our seventh-floor window we could see the hurricane forming 50 miles away. We could see from the weather report on American cable station CNN that it was coming our way and made sure we were on the ground-floor when it struck.

"The irony is that the resort we should have been taken to in the first place was hardly troubled by a gust of wind."

The Cuban Tourist Board even presented guests at the hotel with "I survived Hurricane Georges" T-shirts.

"We definitely won't be going back to Cuba," he added. "The whole experience was very frightening."

Mr and Mrs Saunders, who set off on their two-week break on September 23, plan to sue London-based travel firm Hayes and Jarvis for compensation. They booked the holiday after seeing it advertised on Teletext.

"We think we deserve to get at least some of our money back," said Mr Saunders. A spokesman for Hayes and Jarvis said they had no record of the Saunders's booking a holiday through them but said that if the couple contacted them with a complaint they would look at their case in the usual way.

*Earlier this week, John and Yvette Earl, of Lovelace Close, Abingdon, told how their Caribbean cruise was cut short because of Hurricane Georges.

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