Despite numerous hurricanes down south, Maritimers still seem interested in booking vacations on the Caribbean islands, according to travel agents.

Stacy Gargin of CAA Travel says there are still plenty of inquiries from people interested in heading south, even with all the uncertainty.

“We still don't know what all the damage is on all the islands. They're still doing the assessment,” Gargin says. “What we do know is that Florida is doing well, and there's lots of alternatives for people at the moment."

The island of Barbuda was evacuated before Hurricane Irma hit about 10 days ago. In many cases, residents won't have much to come home to.

Hurricane Maria, another Category 5, slammed into a number of islands overnight, causing extensive damage and killing at least one person. Hurricane Jose is also churning around the neighbourhood, putting a number of governments on alert.

Travel operators are still working to determine which resorts are affected, but they say gathering that information is tricky with more storms on the horizon.

HMCS St. John's deployed from Halifax to help the island of South Caicos, but is pulling the pin for safety reasons. The commander says the ship will depart the area Wednesday to avoid Maria, and hopefully return Sunday.

Late last week, drone company owner Trevor Bergmaan had two employees fly to Antiqua and Barbuda for government-supported aerial surveys.

"This is the way it happens: it's just like Ecuador last year. You get the call, and within 24 to 48 hours, you're gone," the Beechville, N.S., native says.

Bergmann says he gets frequent updates from his team as communications allow, but some things have already been determined.

"We're seeing what looks like a total loss of all the buildings and much of the landscape,” he says. “Suffered some pretty severe damage on that island, as well."

Bergmann says his team hunkered down as Maria tore through overnight, and there is talk now of extending or expanding the mission to survey some of the other islands.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Bruce Frisko.