Hurricane then Covid -- St Maarten

[Hawkstar33]

We cruised there after hurricane Irma in 2019.  Orient was wiped clean of anything recognizable.  At that time they expected long term rebuilding delays.  Has anyone been to that beach recently?  Wondering what we will see in early April, on Edge??   TY in advance

[Livesteamer]

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Edited January 23, 2022 by Livesteamer
Wrong information

[Hawkstar33]

Nobody has been there?????  It has been over 4 yrs since Irma

 

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Hawkstar33

[kearney]

We went to St Maarten last December... We went on one of the Celebrity driving tours... we were supposed to go to the French side... but they had protests going on.. so never got there... I did a little back ground work and found protests going back to August.  We were there on an earlier cruise and at that time the tour did not go to the French side because of the damage from Irma. So I am not sure what has happened to the beach. The dutch side looked pretty good..but I think they may have gotten more help from the Dutch government to help recover.. I can not recall if the French side has as strong a tie to France as the Dutch side has with the Netherlands. 

[Shine]

I was in St. Maarten in august, stayed at the Holland House for two days prior to boarding the Summit.  The beach in front of Holland House is excellent, beautiful clear water, ...you can rent chairs and umbrellas, there is food and beverage service.  The water taxi was not running in August, not sure if its running now.  

[miaminative0853]

Was there two weeks ago but didnt go over to the French side. Everything on the Dutch side was fine and didnt hear any complaints from OPs that went over there. BTW Mask required indoors and outdoors although outdoors not universally followed.

[cruisestitch]

Suggestion….put Orient Beach in your title since tThat’s what you are really asking about.

 

Normally I would suggest doing a search for Orient Beach but the search feature seems to be very unreliable right now

[Froufie]

 I would suggest searching here and/or asking others who have recently visited:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/57-st-martinst-maarten/

[Hawkstar33]

1 hour ago, Froufie said:

 I would suggest searching here and/or asking others who have recently visited:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/57-st-martinst-maarten/

Ty. A few helpful comments for sure...

[abbydancer2003]

5 hours ago, Shine said:

I was in St. Maarten in august, stayed at the Holland House for two days prior to boarding the Summit.  The beach in front of Holland House is excellent, beautiful clear water, ...you can rent chairs and umbrellas, there is food and beverage service.  The water taxi was not running in August, not sure if its running now.  

We were at the Holland House before our Summit cruise as well (7/31).  The beach was great.  And my sister asked if we could just stay at the hotel and skip the cruise.  It was lovely.

[r2h2]

We were at Orient Beach in Mid December of 2021. Taxi driver dropped us off at south end of beach(nude portion).  We saw some places that were totaled and left that way.  We walked the beach up to the north end and everything there was okay.  We had lunch at a French place called Sunset and it was very good. Free chairs and umbrella if you buy food and drink there.

[MISTER 67]

On 1/22/2022 at 9:37 PM, Hawkstar33 said:

We cruised there after hurricane Irma in 2019.  Orient was wiped clean of anything recognizable.  At that time they expected long term rebuilding delays.  Has anyone been to that beach recently?  Wondering what we will see in early April, on Edge??   TY in advance

Irma was in September of 2017. We were living in Sebring Florida and Irma hit us pretty hard with 140MPH winds. In our 29 years living in Florida the night that it hit us was the only time we were pretty freaked out by a hurricane. We were lucky, only lost a few shingles but had some water damage.

[bajathree]

18 minutes ago, MISTER 67 said:

Irma was in September of 2017. We were living in Sebring Florida and Irma hit us pretty hard with 140MPH winds. In our 29 years living in Florida the night that it hit us was the only time we were pretty freaked out by a hurricane. We were lucky, only lost a few shingles but had some water damage.

Was living in a brand new high-rise in downtown FLL....east side of the building had water damage in every unit every floor due to water penetrating the window seals. Think every hotel and building down by the beach was water damaged....sand piled the streets like snow after a nor'easter...used plows like they do in the north to clear snow....it was bad.

[Hawkstar33]

This is why I asked the original question.  When we were there, everything at Orient Beach was gone except a small shack with a couple local guys, in a small shack, selling whatever they could afford to fill their cooler with.   They had 2 of those surfboards that people paddle, and a couple chairs etc.  Everything else was gone to the ground except a few structure foundations.  And that was a year and a half later.  It was truly heartbreaking.  In the shack was a young kid.  He survived after being washed up high into a tree that never fell.  The water came in like a tsunami does, went far inland, then turned around and flushed whatever was left, back out into the sea.   The inland line of debris was incredible to see. He was rescued clinging to the tree.  We had a local drive us in their car to the French side.  Unbelievable stories.  For those that have been there, imagine this. On your way to get there, there is that beautiful, giant, deep valley, with many homes, on the right before you get to the little waterways leading to the beach.  That entire valley filled up like a glass of water, obviously destroying all.  Then it flushed everything back into the sea. Truly sad, yet amazing the power of Mother Nature.  Those locals knew then that help was gonna take a long time to try and rebuild, and monies granted by the French, would be used elsewhere, and not at the beach.   So we will see in April

[kearney]

26 minutes ago, Hawkstar33 said:

This is why I asked the original question.  When we were there, everything at Orient Beach was gone except a small shack with a couple local guys, in a small shack, selling whatever they could afford to fill their cooler with.   They had 2 of those surfboards that people paddle, and a couple chairs etc.  Everything else was gone to the ground except a few structure foundations.  And that was a year and a half later.  It was truly heartbreaking.  In the shack was a young kid.  He survived after being washed up high into a tree that never fell.  The water came in like a tsunami does, went far inland, then turned around and flushed whatever was left, back out into the sea.   The inland line of debris was incredible to see. He was rescued clinging to the tree.  We had a local drive us in their car to the French side.  Unbelievable stories.  For those that have been there, imagine this. On your way to get there, there is that beautiful, giant, deep valley, with many homes, on the right before you get to the little waterways leading to the beach.  That entire valley filled up like a glass of water, obviously destroying all.  Then it flushed everything back into the sea. Truly sad, yet amazing the power of Mother Nature.  Those locals knew then that help was gonna take a long time to try and rebuild, and monies granted by the French, would be used elsewhere, and not at the beach.   So we will see in April

Can you post what you find.... as I noted we had hoped our tour would go to the French side..but the protests apparently included the French tradition of burning cars. Not exactly sure what they were protesting in Dec...but I read back in August it was Covid restrictions.

[r2h2]

No protestors could be seen in mid December on the way to and at Orient Beach. 

[bjahil47]

Just got home from 3 weeks in St. Maarten as we have a timeshare there.  Most of Orient Beach is back to normal.  Some of the island is back to normal and some parts never will be.  It’s still a beautiful island with many places to go to beaches, eat and shop!

[Hawkstar33]

5 hours ago, bjahil47 said:

Just got home from 3 weeks in St. Maarten as we have a timeshare there.  Most of Orient Beach is back to normal.  Some of the island is back to normal and some parts never will be.  It’s still a beautiful island with many places to go to beaches, eat and shop!

Great.   TY