Hurricane Irma 5-6 Sept 2017
News reports are pretty grim for conditions at Sint Maarten/St Martin. The airport is destroyed, many buildings around the island were severely damaged or ripped apart. Vehicles thrown around like match-box toys. I fear for what Club Orient and the surrounding area is like now. Even more worrisome is what might have happened to the people that live and work around there. They will need lots of help getting back together so they can welcome back the tourists who will hopefully pump lots of money into the island's economy.
We will be cruising with an all day stop there in February. Sure hope we can still stop there and spend a lot of money. The people there are great - hope everyone that can will include this island in their future travels.
For those in this group that frequent Club Orient ... here's some very sad news ...
This from a couple of Club Orient's visitors/owners ... Not good ... not good at all ...
Dear Shareholders,
It's ugly!
Steve and Bert just returned to GCBC from a visit to Club Orient.
Their findings include the following:
All wood units are gone. Presumably the slabs are left, but the buildings are gone.
Gatehouse is gone. In its place is a huge pile of debris that landed there from the winds.
Pedro concrete wall ? gone
Concrete buildings survived. Roofs gone or damaged.
Except for the waterfront chalets 46-52 ? They are gone. No sign of where they went.
The new beach goes from the water's edge back to where the studios used to be. It's about 200 feet.
Hurricane shutters on units left are gone as well as the contents of all the houses ? presumably sucked out by the wind ? no sign of where the furniture, cabinets, appliances, etc., went.
The units' contents have been stripped by the hurricane.
The villa is standing ? no further detail.
Papagayo is standing but may not be sound structurally. All the contents are gone.
The utility plant is covered with debris so Bert and Steve could not get a close look at the generators, switch panel, etc. It looks like there was about 5' of water in that area, which means salvaging the electric plant is in doubt.
The reception building is still standing. The front desk and other furnishings are gone.
The tennis courts are gone.
Steve and Bert drove through Orient Village where most of the buildings are standing but the contents of the first floors that they could see into are gone.
Looters beat Steve and Bert to the resort. They were clearing out the Boutique. We let them take the contents because presumably they need the stuff worse than we do!
I will continue to keep you updated as new information comes in.
Steve took about 100 pictures but has no way to transmit them until Internet service is restored.
According to Fr?d?ric Lecomte, our Paris attorney, the French media are reporting that 95% of the island is destroyed.
We have a huge job in front of us. We will need a lot of out-of-the-box thinking to reinvent Club Orient ? better than ever.
Thanks for the post. Club Orient has been in touch with many of their regular/previous guests via Facebook and email and as I'm sure you know BareNecessities has organized a fund raiser for their employees. I had reservations for November, but that's impossible. I'll support them and get there when they are ready. Sad thing is, but there is so much more on the island that needs to be fixed before a visit is possible.
Word by the major cruise companies (Princess and Royal Caribbean) is that visits by the ships will begin in December 2017. The super-big Oasis class ships of Royal Caribbean may not be able to dock for a couple of months yet but the island will be ready to receive us real soon. Unfortunately the facilities at Club Orient won't be quite as ready then. I think there will be beach time and The Perch will be ready for some kind of service but I doubt we can count on overnight facilities for a while yet. I'll still go in February 2018, and hopefully get on the beach for aa few hours. And my wife and I plan to drop a lot of money at the various places on the island - they really need all of us to leave some of our cash with them.
We have a cruise on the Oasis next September. Still plan on taking a cab to Orient and getting drinks at the new mini-Perch. We will see what kind of progress is being made on the hotel side at that time, and decide whether to plan a spring 2019 trip to Club O or just book the Bare Necessities 2019 cruise.
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