Eileen McGarry and her family were in the middle of their vacation on Grand Cayman in August when reports came in that Hurricane Dean was barreling toward them. They were ordered to evacuate their lodging amid news of impending disaster.

Tourists clogged the airport on Aug. 17, seeking to escape. The McGarrys' carrier, Delta, had no available seats. Cayman Airways added flights to get people to Miami. The McGarrys, a family of four from Fairfax Station, Va., paid Cayman Airways $1,100 for one-way tickets. From there, after some wrangling, Delta agreed to fly them the rest of the way home without charge. The island was spared a direct hit, but the McGarrys avoided 60-mph winds, 16-foot waves and a stay in a shelter.

Luckily, they had bought a travel insurance policy that promised benefits for trips interrupted or delayed by seven causes, including "bad weather resulting in the complete cessation of services by the airline." That contingency occurred after the McGarrys' departure.

Unluckily, they've been fighting Access America since August, and their last resort — this story — couldn't move the travel insurance company either. Why can't the McGarry family recoup their losses?

"Because they left before an interruption in service. The coverage was not triggered because they were already gone," said Mark Cipolletti, vice president of Access America. He added that the company does not sell policies that cover the McGarry situation.

But Dan McGinnity, vice president of AIG Travel Guard, said several companies, "including ours," sell policies that would have covered the McGarrys. Look for one that promises coverage if your lodging is uninhabitable. "If a named storm is expected and has a time frame, and the property at which the policyholder is staying is recommending or ordering an evacuation, you should be covered under the definition of your lodging becoming uninhabitable," said McGinnity, who also is co-chairman of the communications committee for the U.S. Travel Insurance Association, a trade group.

Best advice, as always: Read the fine print before you buy. And read insurance policies with the narrowest interpretation possible, or prepare to ride out a storm.

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