Assistance In Canceling Reservation.

I want to speak to a customer service rep that I can understand and to be understood. I have spent an entire afternoon trying to cancel reservation Conf. Code . The reservation was booked under my American Express account for 4 family members - my daughter and son-in-law, Wendy and Richard Woods and two minors, Julia Mae Woods and Sara Murphy. As an aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, they are unable to make the trip. They are both school teachers and the trip was made for their vacation/school break. However, because of all the lost time due to the hurricane, the school break has been cancelled. I want to know if there are any contingency arrangements in cancellation policy for this extreme situation. I also went online to begin the cancellation process but without someone to speak with - which I find a great disservice to the public - I was unable to complete the process because your online choices did not accomodate the fact that the reservations are in the name Woods but payment was made by another party (Ross). I would appreciate assistance in this matter. Also, hopefully, there will be consideration for the circumstances. Ronald Ross