Things To Do In SW Florida

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I paid $7,590 for a Modern Mesopotamia tour to Iraq through MIR Corporation for last fall. I also purchased insurance from AIG Travel Guard at a cost of $766, which offered 100% coverage for trip interruptions or cancellations. Just 14 days before the trip was supposed to start, I received a letter from MIR Corporation that they were canceling the trip because the United States government raised the security risks. They offered a voucher, which was only good for a trip to Iraq in the next two years — if there was any travel allowed to Iraq. I believe it is a worthless voucher.

I filed a claim with AIG Travel Guard, but it denied my claim. I also disputed the charge on my credit card, but my credit card company sided with MIR Corporation. I’m very frustrated by this and hope that you might be able to help me recover this money.

— Diane Gottlieb, Chicago

ANSWER: It doesn’t seem fair for a tour operator to cancel a trip and not offer a refund. But the terms of your tour say otherwise. They allow MIR Corporation to keep your money and issue a voucher for a future tour, which is exactly what they did. read more

Mike Fischetti raced home last week after getting a frantic call from his neighbor to find almost two feet of water covering his front yard. The water was inches from reaching his Lake Ajay Village home of 23 years.

A makeshift dam — built by construction workers to control runoff from an adjacent housing project — had failed and let hundreds of gallons of rainwater go rushing the length of a football field down the road, across Fischetti’s property and into Osceola County’s Lake Ajay.

Fischetti’s neighbors could relate. In January, Brian De Leon’s backyard slowly filled after the project developer began pumping out water from a different flooding incident.

Lake Ajay Village sits next to a brand-new Pulte Homes development, being built on former wetlands that used to absorb Central Florida’s frequent downpours but no longer do that job. The neighborhood also abuts the border between Osceola County and the city of Orlando, and sits in a zone overseen by the South Florida Water Management District. read more