The AntiguaNews page went online on Tue, 29 Sept 1998, just two days after I got my telephone lines back and discovered how misleading reports of devastation in Antigua were. In the following five days we received over 13,000 hits, on associated pages! Besides sending out a thousand or so newsletters we also corresponded with CNN, Chicago News Network, Chicago Sun-Times, Pioneer Press, Daily Herald Tribune, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, the New York post and Time magazine as well as UK papers like Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, and The Guardian. I fear that "Good news is no news" and that they may not run stories about Antigua's remarkable recovery but IF YOU SEE ANY REPORTS, GOOD OR BAD, PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT IS BEING SAID.
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I can't help but wonder if it isn't more than coincidence that we also broke our record over at my main site CineSecrets.com last week with over 96,000 hits. In fact, hits at CineSecrets have risen steadily over past weeks due in part to the many surfers coming to us through Yahoo! looking for information about the new Star Wars Trilogy and in part due to the BBC recently naming us "Best of the Web - Special Effects", but this was a sudden jump of over 20,000 hits above a normal week.
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I've received MANY nice comments about the site from tourist's, travel agents, and well wishers from around the world and have started to compile a readers letters page.
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I have just scanned more of my first roll of post Georges photos and they will go up over the next day or so. I have almost shot the second roll, (I'm taking my time as Benjies Photo agreed to process 3 rolls and I want to space the shots to adequately record our recovery. Check the home page http://1-by-1.com/AntiguaNews from time to time to see if they are up.
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Since a comparatively small percentage of travel agents and other travel related services will have found AntiguaNews I have decided to combat the negative press by taking my newsletters to them. Much of my time right now is spent trying to complete the construction of a spider to search the web for email addresses of travel agents and other travel services. I think I'm very close to completing the task and look to being able to attract travel professionals to the site by email invitation.
If those of you in the business have any other suggestions of listings or associations that could be useful in this quest, please let me know.
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Steve Quinlan, <quinlans@banbury.ayscough.co.uk>, UK travel agent arriving in Antigua on the 23rd advises me: "Latest info today from St. James' Club is 21 Oct is definitely reopening date (Source - Cheri Selfridge, Director of Sales). I am interested in seeing Tony Bowen's upcoming comments".
I wish I could help there. I've been trying to talk to Tony Bowen, Vice President of Operations for Antigua Resorts about Royal Antiguan, Galley Bay & St. James ( where his office is located). Unfortunately Tony was never available to talk to me. I'm told that if I want news about their operations in Antigua that I should call Cheri Selfridge or Tim Grandy at their office in Miami.......... !
I can't say I was too impressed, but did try.... only to get several engaged signals. Some how when I started this page I didn't imagine I'd be making long distance calls for info about Antigua!
Any way, as I said in my last newsletter, these guys did a great job of repairing their properties after LUIS and I don't imagine that they will re-open until they are completely ready. I see a lot of their guests passing through my gallery and they are usually amongst Antigua's happiest tourists.
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I was surfing around to see what other post Georges information sites were out there. It was unfortunate that an Altavista search of "Antigua and Barbuda" (or was it :Antigua & Barbuda") produced at position # 19 a very woeful report about damage here from my old friend Martha Gilkes. The storm was hardly over when Martha picked her way through the debris in her garden and reported her "first impressions" of storm damage to The Caribbean Hurricane Page. It's typical of the way the things we write on the net show up in the darnedest places. It's a pity that Altavista didn't show the following, more optimistic, report which she made only a few days later.
Date: Sat, 26 Sep 1998 16:15:15 -0300
From: MARTHA WATKINS GILKES (gilkesm@candw.ag)
Subject: LIFE GOES ON AND GETS BETTER!!!
Antigua is really pulling itself together! It was only 6 days ago
that we were battening down the hatches and thank goodness most took this thing seriously and were prepared..... because we certainly took a terrible lashing... However, already there are BUDS ON MANY PLANTS... many phones are still working (don't know how as I drive over my line several times a day...) and electricity is being restored quickly (not to me...as I am 14 miles away from "civilization" so don't expect this right away...and my 3 little miracles of life I told you about in an earlier posting (the new born baby love birds who weathered the hurricane OUTSIDE and went 48 hours with no food or mama to tend them...) are thriving after being rescued. Each day there are new colors coming out... blues/ greens/ peach tones...and each day it seems they think I AM THE MOTHER BIRD as I feed them! They have helped me keep faith in restoration/ clean up of major mess and knowing that our PARADISE ANTIGUA will come back... So guys... give us a few more weeks and we will be ready for our wonderful tourists to come back and enjoy it with us!
I have not resumed my scuba diving business so cannot tell you the state of the reef. We know it will be badly damaged as the waves and beach damage was major... but, life the baby birds...that too
will recover... Our thoughts have been with all the others in the path
of the storm... the Gulf Coast now... and just know, no matter how bad it seems, it will get better (as long as Gert does not tell us about
ANOTHER STORM.) Bless him for the great need he has filled with STORM 98..."
In fact Martha and my wife Gloria (known locally as the parrot lady) were swapping feeding formulas for Martha's fledgling lodgers as the storm approached! We were both pleased when despite all odds they survived. (Maybe we'll even get some photos.)
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Getting back to business......... Blue Waters Beach Hotel - This hotel has been undergoing major construction & refurbishment for some months and they were not scheduled to open until November 1st anyway. The official word is that they sustained minimal damage, mainly water, and are now opening 1 December, only one month later.
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Similarly, Galleon Beach Club was already closed as part of their annual summer closure. Their scheduled reopening has now been delayed for a month to 1 December, 1998 due to storm damage. They are not on my side of the island so I don't know the details.
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More when I get it............... regards Nick
