You have planned, sometimes over a year in advance, for your big vacation and all the sudden, a natural disaster (flood, paralyzing snowstorm, hurricane, or tornado) has struck, leaving you with heartbreak and overwhelm.
What do you do when plans get upended beyond your control?
Panic?
Freaking out might feel like the only way to go. You have options though.
If you keep a level head and follow some of these tips, you might just salvage a vacation or find some surprising alternatives that make your heart feel full.
Let’s look at the things you can (and probably should) do.
Safety 1st
I cannot stress this enough.
Your own safety overrides any vacation plans.
Working in a bicycle shop during threat of flooding, with flash floods in the area, a couple had reserved bikes for the day. They wanted to ride to the next town where they had a room for the night. It took some gentle persuasion to convince them to prioritize getting to their destination by car instead of using bicycles.
Within hours of this conversation, historical levels of floodwaters engulfed the area.
If they made it to the next town, they would have spent the entire day trapped in town, and possibly staying in a flooded hotel building. But they would be safer than risking their life for a bike ride. Honestly, the smartest move would have been to travel an hour west to a less flood-affected area.
The message here is to always consider your own safety over the plans you made.
What is happening takes precedents over what you originally planned.
When in doubt, take the safest option.
Consider Leaving
Here is where it is imperative to get travel insurance. This is exactly the situation you will use it!
If you are seeing the threat of disaster, do not wait until you do not have any options. The window to act is small.
When you are in vacation mode, your mind is slow. Most people enter vacation with a feeling of control over what is going to happen. It gives you the “permission” to relax. Natural disasters throw everything into chaos. We instinctively want to reasonably deny the fact that we no longer have control over what will happen.
The sooner you let go of that vacation mindset, the swifter you can make smart decisions on behalf of your own well-being.
It is best to leave and leave early.
You will be doing yourselves as well as others a favor. The last thing you want is to risk the lives of people who must rescue you. By leaving, you take yourself out of the equation to let residents and officials cope and recover.
Can You Help?
In some cases, especially if you lost the window of time to safely vacate, you have the opportunity to help. There are a few ways you have the power to make a difference and turn your vacation into a philanthropic trip.
A “vacation” that helps your soul as much as it helps the community.
Maybe you have skills in demand. For example, you might have medical (physical or mental) expertise, engineering skills, or construction skills. Sometimes recovery requires people to clean up, hand out water, provide a shoulder to cry on, or help distribute food.
Sometimes it is financial help. You can purchase goods and services online, buy gift cards, or just donate to a recovery fund. You can promote the cause to friends and family with ways they can assist in community recovery.
What you will find is that in most types of tragic events, it’s the love and care given that can turn a vacation nightmare into a restoration of the goodness of humanity.
Helping a community recover is a wonderful way to renew a sense of purpose and gratitude in your life.
Banish Feelings of Guilt and Overwhelm
You can’t do it all. One of the most important elements of coping with natural disasters is self-care.
Often, in these situations, we doubt our decisions and let guilt overtake us. If we left to go home, we sometimes feel guilty for not staying to help. And when we help, we get feelings of overwhelm and guilt for not being able to do more.
Whatever you do, as long as your decisions are rooted in the safety of yourself and others, it is the best decision.
Natural disasters are often times when you do not have all the information and resources. You will need to make decisions based on the knowledge you have at that time.
You have no idea that you could have stayed and helped, or if the reality of the situation would turn out to be better or worse.
Natural disasters are out of our control.
Make Plans for a Return Trip
The best way to help a community in the wake of a natural disaster is to make a plan to vacation there at a later date.
If you purchased trip insurance, you have the means to plan your return.
The economic survival of most vacation destinations relies on tourist income. Book a trip 6-12 months out of your original date to ensure appropriate structural recovery time. If you are not rolling your initial vacation into this trip, make sure to pay in full so that the businesses (and their employees!) have cashflow as they rebuild.
Pay for tours, purchase retail and restaurant gift cards, and other future purchases in advance. These businesses need money now to ensure they can still be in business when tourists return.
And for those who were only considering a trip before natural disaster struck, you most certainly should continue making plans to visit.
Just be sure to give the place time to recover so you are not a burden but a welcome relief.
Vacations Happen, So Do Natural Disasters
Vacations are times when we most want things to go according to plan. We love vacations.
We do not love Natural Disasters, but they happen.
Now, however, you have the tools to help you navigate the unexpected. With the right mindset and swift plan of action, you can salvage your vacation, and turn it into something far more amazing (even if that means your vacation is postponed to a later date).
