Word: johnes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...army of insurance adjusters is still taking count, but most agree the damage figure will top $2 billion and could be twice that. Roaring from St. John to Puerto Rico, the hurricane stripped the voluptuous hills of every trace of green; it sent rooftops cartwheeling down the mountainsides and busted power lines and telephone poles, leaving the hillsides silent and dark. Given all this havoc, returning visitors these days will be amazed to see how quickly, riotously, the vegetation is growing back and how mightily residents have worked to clean up the mess...
...tourists do not come back, neither will the islands. More than 10 million visitors came last year, leaving behind $7.3 billion. After Hugo, cancellations poured in, even for destinations not touched by the storm. "Part of our problem is fighting people's terrible knowledge of geography," says John Bell, executive vice president of the Caribbean Hotel Association. "There were groups dropping out of trips to Aruba and Barbados, which were hundreds of miles from Hugo's path." So even as an army of workers moved in, a phalanx of hoteliers and government officials set out to persuade the travel industry...
...help. Four Seasons Hotels sent 27 tons of food, medicine, clothing and chain saws to Nevis, where its new property is still under construction. Cruise ships in St. Thomas ferried stranded tourists out and supplies in. Despite about $10 million in damage, the luxury Virgin Grand resort on St. John was turned into a rescue center by general manager Jim St. John. In all he served about 15,000 meals, provided showers and transformed $595-a-night rooms into a health clinic that has treated more than 1,000 people...
...hotels have taken advantage of the storm, the insurance money and the low season to hasten renovations. By the end of October, most hotels on St. Thomas and St. John were ready for visitors. While the government boosted its advertising budget 54%, hoteliers even offered guests a money-back guarantee. "Everyone who comes down now is a town crier," says Tom Bennett of the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel Association. "We want them to go back and say how pleased they were...
...grim central image of modern spy literature is the death of Alec Leamas, shot by G.D.R. Grenzpolizisten at the Wall in the last scene of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. John le Carre's bleak and entirely believable novel was published in 1963, only two years after the East German regime built the Wall. Since then, Le Carre's surviving operatives and those of Len Deighton, another notable English spymaster, have made dodgy livings evading Vopos at the Wall, armed with little but false passports and the turned-up collars of their raincoats...