Six Cruise Ships Cancel Calls Due To Hurricane

While Bermuda was fortunately spared a hit from Hurricane Florence, the island was impacted financially, with six cruise ships cancelling their calls in an effort to avoid the storm’s path as it churned through the Atlantic, resulting in an estimated loss of over $1.5 million in visitor spending.

This is according to the Bermuda Tourism Authority, which confirmed that the six cruise ships had an estimated 13,910 passengers, resulting in $1.59 million of estimated losses in visitor spending on-island.

The BTA noted that the spending figure is based on average spend of cruise passengers in 2017, and the figure does not include taxes or port fees.

The storm had a devastating impact on the U.S. east coast, with American media reporting that Florence has left at least 13 people dead, including a mother and her child who died after a tree fell on their house in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Officials have declared states of emergency in several states, including in the Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia and Maryland, CNN reports.

Florence has weakened into a tropical depression but flash flooding and major river flooding are expected to continue over significant portions of the Carolinas, the Associated Press report.

The National Hurricane Center says in its 5 a.m. update Sunday that excessive amounts of rain are still being dumped in North Carolina and the effect is expected to be “catastrophic.” An elevated risk of landslides is now expected in western North Carolina.

“It’s like being stalked by a turtle,” FEMA associate director Jeffrey Byard said about the slow-moving storm. “There’s a lot of rain to come. There’s a lot of rain that’s fallen.”

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