An ice-storm in New York last Wednesday, February 14 stranded a California landscape company in Bermuda on its 11th annual retreat.

Landscape Development Inc. employees and their spouses flew from Long Beach, California via New York to Bermuda and were scheduled to return to California the same way until the ice-storm ended those plans. There were 255 employees on the trip, but varying departure dates meant 164 had already returned and 91 still needed to leave Bermuda when Lauren Rollins, Group Manager of the Fairmont Southampton, told them their flight was cancelled.

Tim Myers, Chief Financial Officer, said: ?I wasn?t concerned, initially, about the flight being cancelled because I thought we could get out on another flight, but two hours later when I was talking to JetBlue they told me we wouldn?t be leaving for six more days.

?That just wasn?t an option because people have children to take care of, obligations and things to do.

?This meant I had to turn into a travel agent and try and get employees on other airlines leaving the island.?

JetBlue flights for New York were initially cancelled on Wednesday because of the ice-storm, but severe recovery issues and system disaster on the part of the airline meant they would not be able to accommodate the Landscape Development employees. The first JetBlue flight in a week arrived in Bermuda yesterday on time and they should be back on a regular schedule according to Sebastian White, a JetBlue spokesman.

The airline also contacted Landscape Development Inc. yesterday evening at 7.00 p.m., Bermuda time, to offer compensation for the estimated $83,000 the company stood to lose on incremental costs for being stranded in Bermuda.

JetBlue is refunding 100 percent of employees? fares, which were not used to return on JetBlue, and travel vouchers will be issued in the companies name and Mr. Myers said they will be given to their employees to use.

Landscape Development Inc. will still incur $15,000 of additional costs, however Mr. Myers said he did not have any bad feelings toward JetBlue, even saying that he would fly JetBlue again, and he had only good things to say about the time spent in Bermuda.

He added: ?I would get Bermudian citizenship if I could. We had a fantastic experience in Bermuda and I want to extend a thank you especially to Lauren Rollins for accommodating and extending our stay even at the discounted rate we had initially agreed on.

?Also thank you to Mr. Smatt of Smatt Livery, who we now call the honourable and estimable Mr. Smatt because he extended our discount for scooter rentals and was also completely accommodating.

?The silver lining in all of this was being stranded in Bermuda rather than on the runway at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.?