Cunningham family from Ormiston caught in the eye of killer Hurricane Irma in Cuba

Stuart and Lisa Cunningham (pictured below) and their two sons were flown to the Cuban island of Cayo Coco on September 6, despite weather warnings about the hurricane.

Safety concerns were first raised when passengers were handed a letter at Edinburgh Airport from operator Thomas Cook offering them the chance to change their holiday.

But the couple say by the time the letter (pictured below) was handed out they had already checked in at the airport and it was too late to change their plans.

Their fears were heightened when the family realised they were sharing their flight out to the Cuban holiday resort with emergency relief teams.

And when they arrived in Cuba, they found people already preparing to evacuate.

Dad Stuart, a property maintenance engineer, told the Courier: “When we got to the hotel people were horrified and were saying: ‘Why are you here?’

“The following morning we were called to a meeting and told we were being evacuated.

“We were put on a convoy of 48 buses and made a nine-and-a-half hour journey which was supposed to take us to safety, but instead took us into the eye of the storm again.”

The family, from Ormiston, were evacuated to Varadero but by the time they arrived it was clear that that resort was also in the path of the hurricane.

Stuart, 46, said: “We had a hellish bus journey, with just one bottle of water each for over nine hours, and then found ourselves ordered to stay in our rooms at the hotel with security guards on each floor to stop us going out.

“My son’s room flooded and his balcony roof came down during the storm. It was horrific.”

The family, who spent £5,333 on the dream holiday, were eventually flown back to the UK eight days into their fortnight-long holiday.

They have been told by Thomas Cook they will receive a full refund.

However, Stuart said they should never have been taken there.

He said: “The fact is we should never have been flown to Cuba – they put everyone in danger.”

Wife Lisa, 49, is registered disabled and suffers from rare debilitating condition, mastocytosis.

She said she had been left traumatised by the trip, which the couple took with grown-up sons Jason and Simon.

Lisa said: “My children’s lives and ours were nearly wiped out.”

“We were in the eye of a category 5 hurricane.

“My children are 26 and 27 but they are still my children.”

Hurricane Irma began its path of destruction at the start of this month after it developed from a tropical storm near Cape Verde, off the west coast of Africa.

It has been described as the most powerful hurricane to hit the Atlantic in a decade and has caused catastrophic damage in the Caribbean and USA, with 84 deaths reported in its first two weeks.

A spokesperson for Thomas Cook said customer safety was always its first priority.

They said: “All of our efforts have been focused on bringing our customers home safely as soon as possible and the evacuation of customers from Cuba is now complete.

“We mobilised a 66-strong special assistance team to provide on-the-ground support for our customers on holiday across Cuba and Orlando.

“Those due to travel to Cuba were offered free cancellations and amendments.

Due to the scale of the damage, communication during and after the hurricane was challenging.

We kept in touch with our customers as much as possible, informing them of updates to their travel plans through our reps in resort, as well as by SMS or email.

“We are hugely grateful to our customers for their patience and would like to reassure them that they will be contacted by our customer relations team within seven days of their arrival back to the UK to discuss refunds, incidental costs, or losses.”