Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Travel Forum

My heart goes out first and foremost to ALL those fine people who have been hurt by the terrible hurricane IVAN.My partner and i were planning on going to st. vincent & the grenadines in december, with at least a couple of snorkle trips out to the TOBAGO CAYS. Can anyone tell us how badly damaged the cays are and if the reef there is still in relatively good condition? THX

After hurricane Ivan passed Barbados without to much trouble and hit Grenada he is on his way to Jamaica.
Grenada has been to 90% destroyed. It looks very bad. 80 000 people are homeless.
At the moment I can’t get new news from Tobago. It seemed to be alright there.
Today everybody is watching to Jamaica. Ivan will hit this island in a few hours and they are afraid that it will be a nightmare. They say that never a hurricane hit Jamaica so badly.
I’m not religious but I will pray for this people.
Greetings from Barbados
Monika

I don't understand why the news are just talking about Florida regarding hurricanes. We hardly hear anything if any caribean island got hitten and almost distroied compeletely!!

I'll pray for you for all people who were affected by hurricanes

I agree, it is very frustrating to hear all of our U.S. news focus so obssessively on US! Seems like the forest fires up here all miraculously stop at the Canadian border, and resume down in Washington state. Funny the way that works...

Happily we can get much more online these days. Here's a link to the Tobago News: http://www.thetobagonews.com/index.pl/article?id=1075374
For specific info about reef damage, I'd suggest you email some of the local dive shops.

For those who would like to help out with contributions for the disaster relief efforts, here's a helpful links list: http://www.disasterrelief.org/Links/

Yes, much like the political news in the US, we have to go elsewhere sometimes to get an accurate picture of the truth in America or the world. I am getting the feeling that I live in a place that has complete government controlled media like China or Russia.......but I digress. AS the picture becomes clearer, there is terrible devastation manly in Grenada and my prayers are with these people.
Thank you catalysta but my question was about the TOBAGO CAYS which are a series of small islands in the Grenadines, part of St. Vincent & the Grenadines NOT Tobago which is part of Trinidad, but thank you. Yes, I thought of some dive shops but believed it too insensitive right now to make this relatively trivial inquiry. Evidently there is a group trying to preserve the Cays, Horseshoe Reef and End of the World Reef there as part of a National Marine Park, perhaps after a couple of weeks, I will try that angle or the St. Vincent government. I apprecite your replies and interest.

Oops, sorry!!!

Re: news media, I'm not sure it's control in the same sense that Russia or China's news are controlled, so much as the big business of American news giving us what they think we want to hear - and the majority of Americans are pretty self-absorbed, from what I've seen across our nation. Not evil, bad, terrible people - just somewhat isolated geographically, protected economically, and therefore not that interested in the rest of the world.

Sad, maybe tragic for us, considering the ramifications on the current world scene. We need to get out of our national shell and demand more global coverage. American news is all about the bottom dollar, and the networks think all we really want is entertainment, not truth.

Wow, I had no idea that GRENADA was so badly destroyed and so many people are homeless....makes my question about the Tobago Cays seem so petty to what good people are dealing with just to have a roof over their heads and food to eat. My prayers go out to all those affected.

I don't think the reefs would have been affected at all... I mean they have seen weather all the time after time.. The only thing that might have been affedcted woould be the beaches.. might have a bit more sand on them now! :)

I have returned from St vincent and took a day sail from bequia down through the grenadines to Tobago Cays. The coral reef and islands are indeed pretty,with clean white sand beaches and very blue water.
The snorkeling however was disappointing,compared to The VIrgin Islands and say Australia. I found the variety of corals, both hard and soft to be rather limited.SOme beautiful and colorful fish though and any damage seemed quite limited from IVAN.