Surviving Irma on St. Maarten
By Linda Solomon and Amy Schmidt
Amy Schmidt and I departed Aug. 31st. for a relaxing week on St. Maarten. I’ve spent many vacations in this island paradise over the years with family and friends. Our hotel, the Flamingo Resort is one of the most beautiful locations on the island, featuring palm frond covered palapas and beach lounges at no extra charge. The resort faces due west and we are treated to spectacular sunsets every evening. A restaurant on the beach serves food and drinks just a few feet away. I snorkel each day with hundreds of fish just a hundred yards off shore (and no sharks).
The first few days were ideal, driving the island sharing my favorite places with Amy. Some days were spent lazing under a palapa and bobbing in the cove to keep cool as the temperature hovered around 85 degrees with 70% humidity. People spent a lot of time in the water making new friends from around the world.
Monday Sept. 4th. We became aware of a storm watch that quickly escalated to a hurricane watch. We still hoped that the hurricane would veer to the northeast and give us just a dose of wind and rain then move on. As a precaution we went grocery shopping on Friday stocking up on food and bottled water preparing to rely on the full kitchen in our apartment.
Tuesday Sept. 5th. It became apparent that the storm was now a full-blown hurricane headed directly for St. Maarten. Starting as a class 3 and building, Hurricane Irma eventually became a Class 5 plus with winds up to 120 MPH and gusts over 180 MPH. As the day wore on the sea changed from beautiful calm turquoise to an angry dirty brown spewing white foam over the break wall and very high surf on the normally calm beach. At 4:00 pm a meeting was called at the pool area to inform residents what to expect and how to prepare. We were told to stock up on canned food and bottled water and store water to flush toilets because we were likely to lose water and electrical service. By the time we returned to our room the water had been turned off due to high surf to prevent desalinization plants from becoming contaminated. We got one of our trash cans and went to the pool to start collecting water to flush with. Around 7:00 pm the storm started in earnest. Blowing left to right horizontally across our 4th floor room and building as the night wore on. We had electricity all night in spite of the storm. Amy took a chair and hunkered down in the bathroom. I went to bed and slept until about midnight when I woke to winds whistling through the doors and water leaking in from the hall door. We could hear debris blowing down the hallway and crashing into the walls and stairwells. The corrugated roof flew off the building directly in front of our room and visibility was about five feet.
Wednesday. Sept 6th. At 7:00 AM, the wind died down and the electricity went out. The eye of Irma was passing directly over the island. We could now see the destruction around us. The trees were stripped of all their leaves and flowers, most palm trees no longer had any fronds left and many were snapped in two. Many large trees were completely uprooted. We knew that the storm was traveling about 13 miles per hour and had lasted about 12 hours. We estimated we had about another 12 hours to go after the eye passed over. At 8:00 am, the opposite wall of the eye hit blowing from right to left even more ferociously than before. The wind speed slowly decreased until it blew itself out. By 1:00 pm people were out walking around but the wind was still strong. Debris was everywhere, the ground floor walkways were impassable and the parking garage was flooded. Cars were strewn around like toys on a playroom floor, most smashed or on their sides, lights blinking and car alarms going off. Walking around the resort we realized just how bad it had been with many rooms completely destroyed. Luckily our room was intact but flooded with 2 to 3 inches of water on the floor and even more on the deck due to plugged drains. We couldn’t make any headway with clean up until the patio drained. Our neighbors Mike and Sherry came over and Mike cleared the drains. We spent the rest of the day sweeping out the water and cleaning up. After cleaning our room, Amy kept busy sweeping out the hallway and stairwells.
People whose rooms were destroyed, were moved into intact rooms. Storm doors, refrigerators and furniture were blocking the halls and stairwells with debris everywhere. After a meeting in the lobby to determine that no one in our hotel was seriously injured we went to bed contemplating what lie ahead. At this point we had no electricity, running water or communication.
Thursday Sept 7th. We formed an alliance with neighbors for safety and to gather information and supplies as a group. Mike and Sherry from NC, Liz and Don from NJ, and three from the UK, Genevieve, her husband Noel and brother Chris. We exchanged contact information. Mike found his cell phone worked if he walked up the hill, Genevieve had international calling and could contact her daughter Melanie in the UK. Melanie got an email to Amy’s husband, Bert, and he spread the word to our concerned friends and family. It seems that all of Rio Vista was aware of our plight. The next days were tense not knowing the condition of the airport or runway and the rumors flew. Curfews were in effect from midday on Thursday because looting had begun.
Friday Sept. 8th. We kept busy trying to clean up as best we could. At 8:00 pm we received a message from Amy’s daughter, Alicia, to be at the airport Saturday at 7:00 am. Amy talked to Alicia briefly and confirmed that she had received a call from the State Dept. in Washington DC. We slept well that night.
Saturday Sept 9th. At 2:00 am, a knock on the door from a neighbor alerted us to be in the lobby at 4 am for a meeting and possible flight out. We were directed to pack only what we could carry on our lap. We packed and left our room for the last time leaving most of our belongings behind. In the lobby hotel personnel attempted to confirm the flights before they activated buses to take the hotel residents to the airport. About 6:00 am a bus arrived and we started loading. Our resort contracted a small bus company that made three or four trips to the airport. The line at the airport was already quite long. Netherlands military were setting up barriers and keeping order when a soldier with a bull horn stood directly in front of us and called our names. We thought we were being lined up for a flight with other people, but we were wrong. He led us to the tarmac where we were greeted by an attendant in uniform who shook our hands and said her name was Erica.
On the runway was a 180 passenger airliner, (unknown origin), a C130 troop carrier, and a 12 passenger Gulfstream jet. We asked which plane we would be taking and they pointed to the Gulfstream. Our mouths dropped open in surprise. We felt guilty about our preferential treatment and leaving our friends behind. However, the flight was soon filled and we were airborne. Erica served us delicious chicken salad sandwiches, drinks and chips, sooo good! We landed 35 minutes later in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the private jet Airport and went through customs and immigration there with 10 other passengers, then onto a van that took us to the main terminal.
We were now on our own to make our way home. But we were safe and very grateful. Knowing that soon the airport would be flooded with people trying to get flights and or hotel rooms we booked the earliest departing flight to Baltimore leaving at 2:10 pm Saturday. What a relief, we were going home!
Sunday Sept 10th. We stayed over-night in Baltimore and went to the airport the next morning, waiting for our 7:00 am flight at the specified gate we realized to late our gate had been changed and we missed our plane by 5 minutes. (Always check your gates). The airline managed to get us on a flight leaving in just a few minutes and treated us like royalty with pre-boarding passes. This was probably due to the meltdown we had at the desk. They just wanted us out of there!
We came home to our families and friends at SFO with a sign saying, “Welcome home Hurricane Irma Survivors.” Friends gave us a welcome home party that evening and of course we had to tell our story many times.
We still are mystified about how events unfolded and how Alicia got us on that early special flight out while hundreds of others waited to be flown out on C130’s. All we can say is our toast landed “Jelly side up” and we are GLAD TO BE HOME!!!
Looking out our window after the storm.
Ground floor walk way to the beach.
What is left of the room Don and Liz were in.
Unidentifiable location
Boarding the Gulf stream from Phoenix Air charter.
Flamingo beach before the storm.