Post Hurricane Irma St Maarten News

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By Sonja van der Drift

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Post Hurricane Irma St Maarten News

Businesses in St. Maarten/St. Martin are opening their doors where possible. These three stores on Back Street stand out as examples of the island’s resilience. Several other stores were open in Philipsburg as of last week. Most continue to persevere even without electricity. Shoppers, though few, are heading out to get merchandise. The streets of town are cleared of debris, making them passable for motorists and pedestrians. Around the island, more grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses are receiving customers.

The TelEm Group will have to fork out more than US $18 million to restore its damaged infrastructure and repair its buildings to pre-Hurricane Irma conditions. Like many other sectors on the island, the telecoms industry was hit hard by the devastating winds of Hurricane Irma, which wrought havoc in the country on Wednesday, September 5.
TelEm stated that it would cost an estimated $8 million to restore the company’s infrastructure and more than $10 million to repair the damaged buildings. Phone and Internet services to most areas have already been restored, the company expects full recovery of these services by mid- to late November.

Two garbage trucks courtesy of the Dutch Government are already hard at work in the districts. The trucks arrived on Sunday afternoon aboard the ship Aniek from Curaçao after they were flown across the Atlantic Ocean to that island. The trucks are part of the Dutch Government’s Civil Mission’s efforts to aid in St. Maarten’s recovery after the devastation of monster Hurricane Irma. The trucks are “on loan” from the Netherlands for as long as they are needed and at no cost to the local Government. More heavy equipment and materials vital for rebooting the country after the devastation of monster Hurricane Irma were sailing across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Joint Logistic Support Ship His Majesty Karel Doorman.

United Telecommunications Services (UTS) are positive following a full status check of company, staff and operations in the wake of the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. After carrying out as many emergency repairs as possible around the clock during the past weeks, a full assessment was made to cover the entire scope of damage and repairs needed to restore full mobile and broadband Internet service to UTS’ Eastern Caribbean islands. The company’s infrastructure sustained major damage during the hurricanes. The winds brought down the main telecommunication tower on the roof of the Philipsburg location. This portion of the building houses the company’s core network infrastructure, posing an immediate threat of further damage from water and immediately after the storm, work began to remove the tower and patch the damaged roof.

Source : The Daily Herald

Link for donations : gofundme.com for the hurricane relief fund Sint Maarten

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