I am thinking that most resorts are playing down the damage, not wanting to scare vacationers for a long time to come... After seeing some pictures of the Island and the destruction. Poor business people and resorts will loose so much... The airport alone need major work ... We own there and have not heard from anyone, as all communication is down... But from the looks of this!!!! Gonna take more years than some people have, and that would be us... Very sad... I was around for luis, and managed to stay and stay, not sure about this monster...

I would say minimum 3 years to rebuild the island, 5 years to make it look like pre-Irma, and then another hurricane hitting this weekend??? Really, the landfills can't handle it either on the island, I wish there were some enterprising business there to repurpose the building materials to circumvent them going into the garbage. I don't mean to minimize the hurt the island will feel with all the damaged properties and the masses of unemployment looming, but the island's only business is tourism, they will rebuild as building materials become available. Obviously not everyone will rebuild, but I do believe the island will come back to life, not in months, but years.

It is surely going to be a long haul. I feel bad particularly for those living week-to-week as they won't have income for a long time.

Wouldn't it be great if they built it again, but like Bermuda. No tin roofs. No wood frames. All steel and concrete. Water collection on every roof. One car per family. No clutter or junk allowed in yards or files, etc.

I don't want to sound overly optimistic but after Luis in September, 98? we went to Sint Maarten just a couple months later (December-January). Most buildings still did not have roofs and the Belair, where we stay, sometimes lost electricity/hot water/ and air conditioning while we were there. Divi, next door to Belair was almost completely destroyed.
I am not minimizing the devastation of Irma but before we suggest how long it will take to rebuild, let's get accurate information from all legitimate sources.