12 years ago, the day after...

I woke up today with a lot of memories in my mind. Twelve years ago, on September 5th 1995, we were at the center of one of the most powerful and destructive Hurricane the island of st Martin could remember in its history. 30 years to the day after Dona, Luis pounded St Martin during almost 36 hours. It is one of the most traumatic experience I had to go through in my life. We were unprepared... All of us, the expats, relatively new to the island, who had absolutely no idea what a hurricane meant, the locals because since so long St Martin was spared by good luck from hurricane that they forgot what it was and believed it would never happen to a beautiful island like St Martin...

On the 3rd of September rumor started that something "big" was coming at us... Rumors were soon confirmed by the authorities : It's a powerful hurricane !
"A Hurricane? What is a "Hurricane"? Oh just some wind, you have to stay inside... A lot of people went to orient to see how the wave were big... We never saw such huge wave on Orient. Wow ! That's cool mon! Lets do a "hurricane party" ! And the party went on, celebrating the venue of Mr Luis.

On the 4th in the afternoon, we were suppose to be all locked inside or houses, nobody were suppose to be out on the street. However, Orient was still full with people watching the waves and taking on the first effect of the wind. The street of marigot were still very active and people were still buying few more things and food cane and a couple of bottle of water to go through this hurricane.

On the 5th of September around 9am we started to feel the impact of this powerful storm. at 10 am the wind was blowing like I never thought wind could blow. At 11am, the house across the street from my apartment literally exploded in front my eyes because of the pressure... after that, it was only destruction...

For the first time in my life I felt thick concrete wall vibrating and moving because of the impact of the wind surges...

I learned also that glass can bend... I saw the glass of my sliding doors inflating, bending and almost popping out of its aluminum frame under the pressure of the wind.

I was listening the radio (Radio Caraibe International) the whole island was out of electric but most of the phone line were still functioning. People were calling the radio to share their experience, or to call for help. During the whole day and the whole night there were only testimony of a catastrophic scenario... I remember listening to someone who was in Oyster Pond, at Les Balcons, screaming in the phone that their roof was getting ripped by the wind and that they didn't knew what to do, were to run... I remember when the Sous Prefet talking on the radio to give some updates had to interrupt his message and evacuate the buildings were he was because the roof was on its way out. I remember of a Gentleman in Orient Bay, Alfred T., who risk his life during the whole storm, going out of his well secured house to go to rescue some other people around Orient who were asking for help on the radio.

And then I remember the day after... My appartment had resisted and I was safe. At noon on the 6th, it seemed to be safe to go out. It was like after a bombing... I never saw that in my life before!!! it was like nothing was left, that no houses had a roof anymore, no trees, nothing! Only debris and desolation. We were all under choc, and walking like zombies. It was no time anymore for hurricane parties, we learned our lesson the hard way. The island was level down. During the days, the weeks, the months which followed Luis, the situation was horrible. The island was not evacuated from its tourists before the storm. It took days before a commercial plane was allowed to land and when finally the plane started to come, the Airport was besieged by hundreds of people who wanted to go home. Everything became restricted : bread, water, gas... The island had to rebuilt itself, and we knew it was never going to be the same, and people like me who went through will never forget.

The quality of my pictures is mediocre because they are scanned paper picture. Click on them to enlarge...

The house which exploded across from my appartement

Marigot, center of town, Marina royale and waterfront avenue :

Marigot in front of The Pirate hotel

La Paillote Restaurant next to Mario's Bistrot

Cupecoye Cafe

Some friend's appartment at Cupecoye

Juliana Airport and along Airport road

Entrance of Grand Case

Mont Vernon and Jardins de Chevrise

Orient Bay, the beach and the beach restaurants

Coco Beach

Waikiki Beach

Bikini Beach

Kontiki Beach

Pedros and others...

Club Orient

Afterward Juliana Airport evacuation... Children and Women first