TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Remembering 20 years ago today

Thoughts are with the people of St Maarten, as we recall the loss and devastation experienced in September 1995 from Hurricane Luis.
Luis forever changed the island we love.

It certainly changed the part I've known best, Mullet Bay.....and redirected the path of many lives for our island friends.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6dcEFuBEc78

Wow, can't believe it's been 20 years.. What a cataclysmic event for SXM..

Daily Herald story 1

Daily Herald story 2

Thanks for posting those two stories. Unreal experiences.

I'm sure everyone who lived through it has unbelieveable stories. We were on a cruise that week that HAD been scheduled to visit SXM and STT. Although communication then certainly was nothing like it is now, we knew a little of what was happening to our beloved SXM at the time. Our ship went to the western Caribbean instead, which was so dead flat calm, it was astounding. We surmised that the monster Luis had taken all the energy out of the ocean.

Our first trip back to SXM after Luis was in February 96, when we stayed at L'hoste and were astounded at the wide destruction still evident at that time.

I'll never forget Luis. My oldest son and his fiance were and did get married on Sept. 15th.

One of my gifts to them was a honeymoon at the Horny Toad on Simpson Bay.

I called son 1 and said " I've got good news and bad news. What do you want first?" He said "Bad news." Says I "No more Horny Toad."

"What's the good news?" "You are going to Maui instead." The Horny Toad survived and I've enjoyed many more trips over the years, but I'll never forget the devastation of Luis.

Only year since 1988 we could not go to the Divi because of all the damage.

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Carol, February of 96 is about the earliest I've heard of anyone visiting the island after Luis. Our first visit after Luis was June of 97 and we couldn't believe how bad things still were then. Early 96 must have seemed like the "day after" in some ways.

1996 was the only year we have missed since we started going in 1988. The reason we couldn't go was, there was no Club O to go to. Club O was completely wiped out. When we got there in 97, Club O was nothing but new buildings and sand. They had placed coconuts on the ground and we were asked to water the ones near the unit we were staying in. A few of them had 6 inch "sprouts" coming out of them. Today, all of those coconuts sitting on the sand in 97, are full grown trees.

We did a lot of snorkeling in June of 97. Each day we would find remnants of Club O in the water (doors, furniture, etc.). Management wanted us to tell them where we found each piece so they could remove them.

I was on island July 4 of 1996. The island was only cleaned up a little from Luis. Lots of blue tarps on roofs. Before I left hurricane Bertha came.

SXM??? Wendell

Luis definitely affected my 50th birthday party, but we went anyway. It was simply unreal how much damage that hurricane did. It was the worst of any hurricane I've seen personally.

We were there in April 1996 and it still looked bad in many places. There were several boats in pieces up on the shore and buildings showing various forms of destruction. It took a very long time to recover from Luis!

We were scheduled to be there November of '95 but because of the damage, and the fact that our trip was an AA package trip 'after thought' trip in addition to our usual April trip, the only place they could book us was into a high-rise in Aruba, which may be part of why Aruba just doesn't do it for me to this very day. Sad memories and just not where our hearts wanted to be. I don't remember how long it took for the island to reopen to visitors but it was the airline that cancelled/changed this trip due to all the island's problems at the time.

We did return to the Towers in April of '96 for our regular timeshare time and the devastation across the island was unbelievable.

Most of the damaged units of Mullet Bay were still standing (and IMHO still salvageable had the property owners wanted to....) but the cliff side units including the convention center and original casino area and pool were totally destroyed. We were still able to walk the area and see remnants of what used to be. Heartbreaking to see the sand rising atop the pool chairs in what little was left of the cliff side pool.

The walk along Simpson Bay was equally heart breaking to see - so many damaged and destroyed homes and small hotels with their pools ripped out and standing on end. And I'm not sure if it was this storm or another that beached the huge working boat on the end of Simpson Bay Beach, but I know it sat there for ages. We weren't aware of the Beachside Villas at the time as being a popular rental spot but we did see their pool ripped out and about standing on edge, what portions of it still existed.

And Orient Beach, particularly in the Club O area, had pretty much returned to its natural state of sand and sea grape and not much more. Rumor had it that most of the original Club O wooden cottages had washed away and were floating throughout the Caribbean waters.

I think we may have seen as many tossed and torn boats thrown up onto dry land as we saw unscathed boats in the water and there were still countless boats semi submerged all across the island, where ever we went.

What used to be the Food Center was a pile of rubble and the real heartache was to see the homes of so many reduced to trash piles. Those that were able to salvage portions of their homes and cover them with the countless blue tarps were the lucky ones.......so hard to believe.

And so very sad to remember. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sad.gif" alt="" />

But the truly incredible and amazing thing was the will of the people of the island. Their strength and heart was amazing to see and if you took the time to engage them, their belief in their island and their faith in God that he would bring them back to be even better and stronger was amazing. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

We were determined that we were going to visit and to help the island get tourism going again. L'hoste was largely undamaged, other than all the vegetation being gone, but as of February 96, Club O was basically NOT there. I can't remember, but think there was one building behind Papagayo that survived. Club O was serving drinks out of a cooler on a cement pad that I remember being roughly behind Papagayo. I don't remember that they were serving any food as of yet.

We were on the island Feb of '96. While Mullet Resort was destroyed, the Towers made it through unscathed. The locals said over and over again, "This may look bad, but hurricanes are Mother Nature's way of cleansing."

Our first visit to SXM was on January 6 1996. The Pelican got the D building up and running and we stayed in on an II trade.

We were in SXM in Feb 96 also. Stayed in our lower unit in the C Building at Pelican, because the upper unit had all the windows blown in. Devastation still evident all over the island. Grand Case Beach was littered with debris from Grand Case Beach Club - concrete and electrical fittings from the units. I remember the ship blown ashore near what is now Simpson Bay Beach Villas. At Le Galion, the Coconut Grove Hotel was destroyed and the palm trees were denuded of foliage. RAMs was selling liquor at discounted prices with water damaged labels - Stoli Crystal at half regular price (contents were fine). Vegetation was brilliant green, - new growth. Restaurants and merchants were glad to have tourists returning.

Our first trip to St. Martin was the November after Luis. Although many months had passed, we were still shocked by the devastation that was still there. Boats were still laying on their sides on the airport road. Maho Beach resort was still half destroyed, and Mullet Bay devasted. Orient Beach had very few restaurants/bars, and of course all the subsequent development had not yet begun. Very few leaves were on the trees, so even the landscape looked barren.
In spite of what we saw, what we experienced was amazing. We both fell in love, again, on this magical island. The people and their survival stories shocked us, but endeared them to us with their courage and fortitude.
We have been returning almost every year since then. We actually prefer the St. Martin that we first met, but even with the crazy changes and expansion, we still return.
It is the highlight of every year for us. A time for rest and rejuvenation. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Kiss.gif" alt="" />

I got back to SXM about the second or third week of October when theyfirst were allowing incoming flights but you had to show you owned property on the island in order to get in. I was returning with a local friend from the French side who had come to New York for a few weeks to get away from the disaster on the island. As the plane got close to the island she asked me to take the window seat so that I could see what had thappened to the island I love. As we got close and I could see Mullet Bay my heart just broke and the tears started. I had never felt so sad as I did that day and the subsequent weeks that followed. So many people were living in unbelievable situations and yet they got up every morning, they went to work & they moved on. Most were just happy that they and their families survived and they were happily moving on. I have always been in awe of the fortitude that the people here showed after that storm.

For me the devastation was overwhelming and it was embarrassing to have island people comforting me and telling me it would be OK. What I saw in the people here just weeks after Luis was what firmly planted my heart on this island.

That day coming in on the plane with my friend was the most heartbroken I had ever been. We had a good visit while she was in New York and I took her to the twin towers (my one & only time there) where we took pictures on the roof. Ironically the next time I was that heartbroken and then some was arriving back in New York on September 16, 2001. I was due to get back to NY from SXM on September 12 but as we all know that didn't happen. Fortunately my island friend had wanted to see the towers and so I took her. She and I will forever share the pain and the sadness of those two horrible events.

We took our normal annual vacation in December 95/Jan96 at the Belair. The island was as already described, devastated. So many homes without roofs and so little that was green are some things that immediately come to mind.

The Belair had weathered the storm pretty well with only losses being the pool, most trees, satellite dish and we had to endure frequent loss of air conditioning and hot water during our stay. That was an interesting vacation.

We were to arrive that week on AA 667 out of JFK - had to cancel and our small party would up in Florida. AA told us we has to fly to SXM that is until we held up the front page of the local news paper to the clerk behind the counter showing the airport closed.

Our resort at Divi took a major hit - the hotel section and restaurants were still closed one year later - our friends place at Towers at Mullet Bay remained open but just about everything around it was gone as we once knew it.