We attended a talk from one of the 80 or so property owners of the Club Orient rental units during the mid-winter nude cruise we were just on. He had pictures that I hadn't seen yet online showing the damage. All that was left of his unit was the concrete slab. Their structural engineer went through and identified 30-35 units that could be repaired fairly quickly (by island time) to get the hotel at least started. He mentioned "by the end of the year" and I thought "2019 or 2020?". They counted about 55 total that can be salvaged, which is around 1/2 of their total rentals. The rest aren't worth saving and will be demolished (if they aren't gone completely) and started over. They had a map of the whole property with every building colored in green (worth salvaging), orange (probably not worth salvaging), or red (either gone already or should definitely be demolished). Most of the greens are the mini suite deluxe units owned by the management company that runs the resort. Most of the mini suites were red (totally gone except the concrete pad) except the one closest to the security gates which had burned down and was replaced by a concrete building painted to look like wood to match the rest). The big problem is that the government wants buildings in the high risk zones (within 80 meters of the water, which means all of Club O) to build to a new code that they haven't even come up with yet. The owner wasn't even sure if repaired units would be grandfathered or would have to also go by the new code. He does know that part of the new code will probably be anchoring the concrete slabs to the bedrock rather than just pouring them on the ground and "floating" them. Of course, that's what the shops between Pedro's and Kon Tiki did, but the buildings were blown right off the pads just like at Club O. Another idea being floated by the government is a requirement for "safe rooms" higher than the 8' storm surge that reached all the way to the lobby of the resort offices. They are not sure if that means one for the resort, several scattered throughout the property, or if every building needs one. He did mention a phased approach to rebuilding that included a final phase of new construction on Club O owned land out near the salt pond. Someone asked if they had thought about reconfiguring to a smaller number of bigger buildings, which they said they had, but seemed to be leaning towards keeping the current building format (I would thing the "safe room" requirement might change that thinking).
The preceding was posted on orientbeachforum.com. I asked for & received permission from the OP to copy and paste.
