Sir Richard Branson Plans To Ride Out Hurricane Irma In His Wine Cellar, Surrounded By Staff, On His Private Island
The Sun- SIR Richard Branson has refused to leave his private Necker Island and says he will be hiding in his wine cellar when Hurricane Irma hits the luxury hideaway.
The Brit billionaire decided to ride out the storm and was pictured playing dice with his staff members on Tuesday night.
They even had a “sleepover” in two rooms as they prepared for the most powerful Atlantic storm ever to lash the British Virgin Islands with 185mph winds today.
Sir Richard admitted the eye of the category five hurricane is heading straight for Necker Island today as Donald Trump warned the storm “could be not good”.
“We are expecting to get the full force of the hurricane in around five hours’ time, when we will retreat to a concrete wine cellar under the Great House,” Sir Richard wrote in his blog.
“Knowing our wonderful team as I do, I suspect there will be little wine left in the cellar when we all emerge.”
The Virgin boss, 67, shared pictures of his team holed up together in bunk beds as they waited out the storm – which is estimated to be the size of France.
“We have just experienced a night of howling wind and rain as Hurricane Irma edges ever closer towards us on Necker and the British Virgin Islands,” he said.
“All of us slept together in two rooms. I haven’t had a sleepover quite like it since I was a kid.
“Strangely, it’s a privilege to experience what is turning into possibly the strongest storm ever with such a great group of young people.”
When you hear about Richard Branson’s plans for riding out Hurricane Irma, you picture a cozy, intimate scene of board games, wine, and casual group sex. It sorta takes the edge off that whole “biggest Atlantic hurricane ever” problem. That’s how multi-billionaires handle hurricanes, though. Let’s hole up in the wine cellar and drink our way from 1958 Bordeaux to 2012 Oregon. With any luck, we’ll emerge to find a brand new world devoid of poverty.
I’m trying to think what our boss would do if he invited a bunch of the staff to his Nantucket house and a hurricane rolled in. He’d tell everyone there was only room for one other person in shelter, arm us with bayonette-bearing civil war muskets, and wait to see who survived. Of course, he’d outfit Frankie in a life jacket and tether him to the house with a dog leash so he could document the competition. He’d also use the interns to create a human shield to protect his pool from flooding, which doesn’t even make sense but somehow it would become a classic. The whole thing would be available on pay-per-view and we’d sell a commemorative t-shirt. It would a storm for the ages!