Sherry: This is an important issue, and one that we take quite seriously. Fortunately, the incidence of severe storms that have the potential to compromise guest safety are quite rare; the last was Hurricane Bertha in 1996, and before that, Marilyn in 1995, and Hugo in 1989.
We carefully monitor potential storms during the hurricane season, and have a fundamental call to make for any whose track appears likely to pass over or very close to St. John. If the combination of storm track and forecasted intensity indicate that guest safety could be at risk, and that villa closure will be required, we cancel the stay, either telling guests not yet on island not to travel down, or for guests already at the villas, that they need to leave the territory ASAP. We have yet to have to make this call, but stayed in close communication with both guest groups over the last week as we evaluated the risks of Invest 93L. With the increasingly accurate forecasting models, this call should be able to be made while the ferries and airport are still operating. We then have on-island workers who implement a detailed villa closure plan, bringing all loose furniture indoors, and securing all twenty-nine windows and doors at each villa. We would never ask our guests to do this. I suppose that there is some risk that a freak jog in a storm track could lead to strong winds while guests were still on island; in this case, we would have to decide between recommending local public shelters (typically schools), versus having them gather in the kitchen building, which as the smallest hipped-roof structure with only a few small windows, offers the greatest safety. The closure would still be managed by local workers. Hopefully we won't have to address this situation.
Our policy is that guests traveling during hurricane season should purchase trip cancellation insurance to protect them in the event that their stay must be cancelled. While CSA (
http://www.csatravelprotection.com) offers affordable trip cancellation insurance, most of our guests book via VRBO, who also offer a CSA plan through the VRBO site and booking process (
http://www.vacationprotection.com). Forum members might want to check this out; at about 4.5% of the coverage amount, it covers nearly any legitimate reason for trip cancellation: extreme weather, of course, but also medical issues, jury duty, school year or exam changes, traffic accidents, military call-up or leave changes, etc. We wouldn't recommend this, but CSA does allow you to secure insurance up to the time that a hurricane is named, so if you wanted to wing things, you could in principle hold off on buying insurance until a week or so before your trip, carefully eyeing the NHC forecasts.
On a side note, we had close friends whose wood-frame home in Chocolate Hole was severely damaged by Hugo, and subsequently wiped out, down to the cistern, by Marilyn. We didn't know that they would become our villas at the time, but both Coconuts and Plumeria sailed through these three storms with only minor damage, due to their masonry construction, effective shutters, well-secured roofs, and architectural design (multiple, hipped-roof buildings). We had a chance to meet the construction foreman a few years ago, who pointed out all of his beyond code roof connections, and boasted that "I never lost a roof on this island!". The same developer, architect, and construction team also built Gallows Point, Battery Hill, Cruz Views, and Estate Concordia. The developer, David Culberson, recently published a novel, "Back Time in Love City" (
http://www.amazon.com/Back-Time-Love-Ci ... 061587293X), which I am trying to find time to read.
[Edit: Well, I sandbagged several projects this afternoon, kicked back by the pool, and finally read "Back Time in Love City" start to finish. It's a great tale, an autobiography by the fellow who built a number of places on St. John (including Coconuts and Plumeria), and does a great job of capturing the spirit of an earlier and wilder St. John (not that we were there back then; we followed St. John in the 70's and 80's, but were way too broke at the time to actually get there). Recommended reading, and perhaps deserving of its own thread, given that this edit comes at the tail end of this one.]
All the best,
Kevin