The rumor mill is getting out of hand about St Maarten and St Martin.Many wild stories
Yes there has been looting and holdups and maybe a few escapees from prison but now with all the Military and police who have arrived on the Island including curfews ; order is again taking shape and hopefully both water and electricity will soon be restored so people can again start rebuilding and cleaning up the Island.99%of the locals are wonderful warm and friendly , highly religious people who care deeply for their Island.
So please don't spread wild rumors or stories unless they are 100% verified as being true.

Correct and thank you.

CNN just did a segment on St Maarten but only showed total destruction but not even 1 pictures at all of places that held up.
Sad and it makes me angry.

That is what gets ratings, the bad and the ugly. IMHO, the news media in the US is pathetic compared to what they used to be.

After the SXM segment CNN did one on the Keys and said ridiculous things and then phone interviewed a rep. from the keys who blasted the crap the CNN reporter was saying calling his allegations 100 false. The rep was BS at the reporter.

Can someone please tell me what "held up" and what is your definition of "held up"?

Because i have not seen any videos or photographs of anything that "held up" and I have not heard anyone who is on the island talk about anything that "held up".

I pray there are places that "held up"....I pray that people are over exaggerating the damage and the lawlessness...I hope that by the end of December the island is up and running.

But there have been too many people who have now returned from SXM who are being interviewed on CNN and the like and who are validating that the videos and pictures we have seen are indeed the facts.

If they are predicting that it will takes weeks and months to repair Florida after a cat 2 how in the world can an island who suffered a cat 5 with wind gusts to 220 mph...have power restored and buildings repaired by the end of December?

can we not talk about "fake news" and can we stop blaming the news media and actually think about how many lives they may have helped to save by reporting and staying on top of things? The devastation is so horrific on its own merit...do they really need to "make it worse" than it really is for ratings?


I am one of the original members of TTOL....I know Carol and eric personally. This place has BOOMED within the last week...it has been overwhelming...the traffic here has slowed it down so much i can barely get threads to load.

DO we blame carol and Eric for "fake news" and only reporting negativity to push their "ratings".

Come one folks....we are better than this.

I am not even going to try to define "held up" as it will not be correct in the eyes of some. Just like posts indicating a particular business or building is "gone", only to later see a picture of damage (severe in some cases) but by no means "gone".

I have seen the same pictures and posts most others have. I have directly communicated with a couple of friends who live on the island and continue to try to do so but without any luck today.

One local friend who lives in French Quarter personally told me he had "some damage" to his dwelling and "some damage" to his taxi van.

I think it is pretty obvious the damage ranges from complete destruction to minimal in some cases. An awning being down or an entry way being down may look bad but until you investigate further, that is not a good way to assess the damage.

Have you ever been in a meeting or training where one of the exercises is to pass a short statement around the room (in silence/whisper and no writing) from one person to another? Put 15-20 people at a table, do this exercise and the end result is almost NEVER the initial statement coming out as it started. Most times it is wildy different than how it started and not even close.

I think a lot of this is happening with reports about this. It is severe without a doubt but by the time it gets passed on from one person to another, one social media site to another it is often not as how it started out.

As long as one sticks with the facts, a lot of the misinformation could be avoided.

here's a thought, if you believe the damage and destruction is being exaggerated or over-hyped by the media, why don't you start a thread showing all the places that were not damaged and destroyed?...we already have a thread dedicated to the damage, why not have a counter-thread showing all that survived to make your point?

seeing is believing <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clever.gif" alt="" />

I certainly agree with your observation...and will point out that FALSE RUMORS can go either way.

My guess is..most videos and pictures are not lying. I am trying to base my assessment of the damage on those rather than observations posted by folks who are not there.

Steve Payne's video told me that the looting is horrific...He said that the looters have guns and that he has a stick...he said that there is nothing left of Club Orient. I believe him. I have no reason to believe that he has any reason to lie or exaggerate. I cannot verify that he is telling the truth. So if i share his video am i spreading a wild rumor?

What are the true facts? and how do we know who to trust and who not to trust?

Islandboi....that is an EXCELLENT idea!

I just got off the phone with one local friend and asked about the looting. He said there is nothing left to loot at this point. They expected some from stores/businesses and houses that were not secured but then the "bad guys" (as he called them) started "busting up" secured businesses. He did think the authorities were getting it under control some but most anything of value has been taken already.

His thought on when they would have electric back, they are hoping soon but he speculated it may be Christmas before some areas get electric back. No water in his area yet.

He did say a lot of residents are helping other residents and neighbors with the clean up as there is nothing else they can do right now.

I have confirmed from people on the island reports that electricity has started to come on, perhaps not reliably or every place in the area, but it's starting.

Concordia
Marigot
Friars Bay
Pelican
Belair

Thank you. Hopefully more will come online soon.

Also if you listen to Laser 101. The are not taking information unless it is verified by a couple of people. An employee called in and said their work/restaurant was open. The DJ to the employee said they wouldn't verify this as true unless the owner of the restaurant called and said it was open.

Many islanders are calling in saying they are hungry. Imagine using your last gasoline in your car getting past security to go to a place that is closed.

Wendell

I AGREE 100% WITH RURAL CARRIER; I HAVE SPOKEN DIRECTLY WITH PEOPLE ON THE ISLAND AND MOST HAVE HAD FROM ALMOST little DAMAGE TO MODERATE, to EXTREME damage. Non of them are leaving the Island but staying there to help in the rebuilding process.
As I said before CNN report only showed the worst of the worst in the segment with the Boston Couple who obviously were frightened to death being there . In a few months their fear will turn into a story they will tell for years to come.
SXM will come back and I believe BETTER than before.

The fact is there has been looting and desperate people doing desperate things. The fact that police and military have been sent from neighboring islands and France and the Netherlands and are still on the way to restore order is a verified fact and proof positive that this is a serious problem. It is being delt with. It will be some time before a true picture of the damage done emerges. I'm confident the recovery will happen albeit a long and difficult task.

This thread is unbelievable. The OP is right. There are a lot of falsehoods being spread. The damage is UNBELIEVABLY bad. Like nothing I could have imagined, and it makes me weep.

Yet I am blessed. You want to know "held up?" My parents house is fine, just two gutters hanging off the roof. There is someone else's ENTIRE roof in their yard. But their house sustained less damage than mine did in DC during Sandy.

So there. That is just one example of the different levels of damage. We've seen so much of the awful. I'd like to start hearing about the community that is slowly pulling together for each other.

Smfh

Well thank you for that encouraging report! We asked a long time ago fro folks with good reports to tell us!

I am so happy for your family that there was minimal damage. They were so lucky

I don't have photos to share, but I have seen video of the La Vista Beach building that sustained little damage. There are some shingles off the roof and a couple of windows were lost, but otherwise the building is intact. Right next door to LVB is Eleganzia, which is another three-story building. Friends who live there sustained little to no damage, and as I understand it (I haven't spoken with them directly) are currently back in their home.

You must not have seen the post I put on another thread.
"Here is a post from LaVista that was on Facebook which is public.
From Andrea @ La Vista Resort
My owners..this is Andrea from #SXMSTRONG and #LAVISTASTRONG . I have some internet so I am taking this time to say thank you for all the emails and messages I have not been able to read..LOL..we are ok but living as cavemen. No running water..no elektra and help is slow in coming. Janella and I survived in room 5's bathroom by the grace of God. The roof from room 19 fell onto our porch and protected us from more winds when our doors blew open. We sat in the bathroom with our backs against the door to hold it shut. But there are 100 worse stories. La vista is severely damaged..the island is catastrophically damaged. I am awaiting the insurance adjuster but it is impossible because sxm is shut down and the military has taken over. I have not heard from all my staff as communication is impossible and driving around is not allowed. Debbie is fine. Yeimy lost everything. Marleni is reasonable and most gardeners and security lost everything. I only heard from Alexia the housekeeper..she lost part of her roof. I know everyone is thinking of us and everyone is anxious to return. In all honesty I don't see that happening right now not in the near future. Materials will be hard to come by especially since Houston and Florida have also been hit with disasters recently. 90% of St. Maarten lost their roof so skilled labour will be hard to come by. I have absolutely no idea how long this will take. I doubt I will be able to reopen La vista anytime soon. Right now we are all in survival mode. Glad for a shower by bottle and a glass of water and so grateful for a roof over our heads. I will only be able to assess any timeline through a professional which is not available right now. At this point I do not have an answer for you. I am afraid we will miss this season completely. La Vista Beach is less damaged than La Vista but also has a LOT of work that needs to be done. I know all of you have a million questions. Please bear with me..it will be weeks or even months before we have a functioning infrastructure although everyone is working around the clock to try and restore everything. They will have to go house by house to rebuild water pipes and electric lines and it will take time. IT WILL happen! Hopefully sooner than expected. I am so grateful for everyone's support and I hope for better communication soon. I can't answer anyone right now and Facebook updates are done via via from Holland and Canada. Sorry for the long post. I don't know how long this generator will run as diesel is only for emergency. The situation is dire but some good must come out of it. We did it 22 years ago and will do it again. Oh...also...all the cats are still with us..lovey..oreo and shadow...don't know how they managed but they did..thank you all and I hope for more news soon.."

I did see it. I actually saw Andrea's post on Facebook, as I'm an owner there. I posted that information here, as someone had asked what had "held up".