As Snoopy said, "It was a dark and stormy night."…actually, it was several dark and very stormy nights. Hurricane Lenny broke all rules of the game. Since hurricane records have been kept, there have been only five hurricanes in the month of November. Never has a hurricane started in the western Caribbean and moved mostly eastward. We heard the rumor on Saturday, November 13, 1999, that a tropical storm was developing west south west of Jamaica, but, hey, we were in St. Maarten in the eastern Caribbean…no problem, man! Ha!! We were in for the experience of a lifetime…and hopefully a "not to be repeated" experience. Hurricane Lenny was a force to be reckoned with.
By Saturday, the TV weather channel was reporting a well defined tropical depression and, by Sunday, the depression had graduated to storm status and was named Lenny. The predicted path of the storm was northeast toward San Juan, Puerto Rico and maybe the fringes of the Leeward Islands. We had been having a great time on St. Martin since the 4th of November. On Sunday, the 14th, we moved right next door from our timeshare at the Pelican Resort to our timeshare in unit 7201 at the Flamingo Beach Resort. Our one bedroom, two bath condo is on the second floor right smack on the beach. We never trade this unit because the place has location-location and location. On Tuesday, we were snorkeling in the lovely clear and calm waters of Simpson Bay in front of Flamingo. We planned that evening's lobster dinner with our friends Steve and Noreen. Just over the hill and up the road from our condo towards Philipsburg is "Johnny under the tree" where ribs, chicken, and lobster are grilled by Johnny in his front yard. For the past several years, we traditionally have lobster from "under the tree" and Tuesday was the "scheduled" day. At 3 p.m. Tuesday, Flamingo distributed a letter door-to-door stating hurricane Lenny's direction and noting the possibility that St. Maarten was in the path. We were advised to stock up on water and non-perishable food for two to three days. Steve and Noreen always bring lots of food, including frozen meat, for they are at Flamingo for three weeks. We went over to Peli Deli, like many others from the condos, and got water, bread, beer, soda, and can goods. The evening was lovely and we enjoyed a delicious lobster dinner on our second floor deck overlooking the ocean.
By Wednesday morning, the winds were blowing and the sea was getting too rough to snorkel, plus the water was coming up the drains in the first floor condos from the heavy rain showers. The parking garage already had 10-12 inches of water before the pumps were brought in to alleviate the water problem. Fortunately, last night John and Steve had moved their rental cars out of the garage to higher ground. The first floor condos were evacuated and Steve and Noreen moved in with us. Everyone was milling around inside and outside until the noon curfew. By noon, the ocean was turbulent and pulling sand off the beaches. Waves were crashing on the newly built breakwater wall under our noses. Wind was shearing the tops off the waves. Suddenly, the beautiful blue-green water of the Caribbean became the muddy, sandy, foamy waters similar to the Missouri River at flood stage. During Wednesday morning, we were watching the weather channel and saw that Lenny was increasing from a Category 1 to 3 storm and slowly moving east-northeast toward St. Croix and, eventually, St. Martin.
The winds were increasing and many people were recording this event for posterity - cameras, videos and eyeballs were all focusing on the waves and crashing surf. One fellow was over on the south side of the pool when a wave rolled in and caused him to jump back and he fell into the pool - camera and all! Meanwhile, the Flamingo staff and volunteers were constantly doing things to prepare for Lenny. All the pool furniture was placed in the pool; the beach furniture was chained to a tree or put in the garage; all furniture on the porches and decks were placed inside; and all screens were removed from the sliding glass doors. The Pelican Resort had only chained their chairs together and the chairs were soon grabbed by the sea as a single chunk. Beach chairs and large rocks float in heavy seas. The Pelican Resort also lost the box where their beach umbrellas were stored. Eventually, the Pelican Beach Bar was destroyed by the waves.
Steve and Noreen were due to move into the currently vacant unit 7302 on Saturday. They were able to get a key for this unit as another option of higher ground for us all. At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Flamingo offered a dinner for $7. The chef and his family were in one of the units and he cooked rice and kabobs and pork chops for whomever needed to have food. Remember this is a vacation and most everyone eats at the wonderful restaurants that are all around the island. We four decided to go get the Flamingo dinner and brought it back to our unit. As of 5 p.m., no one was to be outside their units. The wind was getting very strong. By 10 p.m., we are still waiting for Lenny to get closer, however, he was stalled, but getting stronger. Lenny's winds were 135-150 mph, which is a Category 4/5 hurricane!! At 6 p.m., we had a Category 5 hurricane. Oh wonderful!!! At noon on Wednesday, we lost the weather channel and CNN, but had the movie channels available. By 6 p.m., all TV channels were gone, but fortunately the in house channel played movies in a attempt to refocus our attention from the hurricane. At 10 p.m. as the storm approached, the electricity was cut off by the island power company for all above ground power line customers. Flamingo switched over to their generator to maintain the lights, fans, air conditioning and refrigerators. Remember -- we all had to keep the windows and doors shut and without AC, the temperature was quite warm. Steve has a radio and he was able to pickup one AM channel, 1300, where they gave hurricane reports and talked with the Miami Hurricane Center. As of Wednesday at 10 p.m., the hurricane continued to remain stationery off of St. Croix.
The Flamingo staff continued to check on their owners and guests. Management has a "hurricane team" and the hurricane plan is in place and working. The general manager of the resort called all the units Wednesday evening to make sure everything was OK. On Thursday morning, a member of the hurricane team knocked on every door to see that people were OK.
After the electricity was turned off Wednesday night about 10, the four of us went to bed. Not to a peaceful night's sleep, but one where we were ready at a moments notice to jump out of bed and head for either the bathroom or the outer hallway or someplace safe. We had our backpack packed with our valuables, a small bag with dry clothes and towels setting by the doorway. We could grab them on the way to wherever. Sleep was fitful. Steve would listen to his walkman and give us a report. Lenny was stationery all night. Wind was howling down the hallways and either rain or waves would bring water into the halls. We did not get water in through the windows, but instead rain water came from the hallway through the wall right beside our bed. Steve and Noreen were high and dry in the hide-a-bed in the living room. We were wringing towels and trying to stay ahead of the water for 36 hours. We all were up at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday and realized we had electricity so we could cook breakfast. Carolyn prepared "survivor's breakfast" of stuffed French toast. Later, Steve and Carolyn ventured out on the porch and up to 7302's porch to take pictures of the entire Simpson Bay area. The brunt of Lenny was focused on the eastern side on St. Maarten, that is Simpson Bay, Great Bay, and Mullet Bay.
The radio report from the Miami Hurricane Center at 11 a.m. reported that the island of Saba, which we normally can see from our porch, had 90 mph winds and Lenny was still drifting slightly east-northeast and will hit St. Maarten straight on. There are no upper level steering currents and, until there are, the eye of the storm won't move more than 1-4 mph. Winds and rain will pick up as the center approaches St. Maarten. Currently, Lenny has 135 mph winds and is a category 4 hurricane. Fear is watching the waves crash and the winds blow and wonder what damage will be caused by the wave surge. The southeast side of the hurricane has the strongest winds and pushes the water ahead causing a wave surge, which really can be damaging. Hurricanes are not just wind, but lots of rain and we heard that St. Maarten already had 13 inches of rain, but we never heard the final accumulation for the entire 36 hours. With so much rain you have drainage problems and landslides. The capitol of the Dutch side of St. Maarten, Philipsburg, sets right on Great Bay. This is where the cruise ships normally anchor. Behind Philipsburg is a large salt pond. With the heavy rain and the crashing waves, Philipsburg, the salt pond and the ocean merged and the town was flooded.
On the Pelican and Flamingo beaches are large ten foot diameter wooden umbrellas with palm fronds roofs and tables. Each one had a large cement footer about six feet down in the sand. We could see three of these umbrellas on the Flamingo beach and saw the waves eating away at the sand exposing the cement footers. We four had a lottery as to when the first umbrella would fall…8 p.m. on Wednesday night! The second one fell Thursday morning at 11 a.m. The wave action eventually broke apart the wooden structure and we were hoping that the cement block wouldn't be picked up in the surf and crash into the building or pool. Fortunately, the cement footers weren't tossed about. Everything else that was not secured went flying. The wind was coming from the east and our porch faces west, thus we didn't have the wind on our windows for the first half of the hurricane. When the eye of the hurricane passed over, the winds switched directions and came out of the west directly into our windows. The rooms are very sound proof cutting down the wind noise by 80%. We had two palm trees outside out sliding glass doors. The trees became our wind barometers, the palm fronds were constantly blown 90 degrees to the trunk. The root structure were totally exposed by now, but the two trees never fell - how resilient mother nature is!
The resort has always had problems with their vacuum toilet system and Thursday morning was no exception. Finally at 11 a.m., the staff called to say the system was working for a short period…go on command…gigantic flush and smiles all over the complex!!
St. Maarten has had several hurricanes in recent years. In September of 1995, hurricane Luis, Category 4, devastated the island and six weeks passed before tourists were allowed to return. Much of the infrastructure required rebuilding - telephones, electric, water. A hurricane of 100 mph struck this October, but Lenny had higher winds than Luis.
The 1 p.m. Thursday hurricane report located Lenny at 17.9 N 63.2 W and the center is southwest of St. Maarten (18.1, 63.2) and the eye wall is over us and will continue for the next 1-2 hours. The eye is 15-20 miles in diameter. When the eye actually comes over, there is a lull in the storm and sometime blue sky or stars can be seen. Then the backside of the storm passes over with heavier winds and more rain. Rain can be measured in feet not inches for some hurricanes!
By 2 p.m. Thursday, we decided that we would cook dinner. We had partial generator electricity for the stove. Power wasn't full, so the microwave wouldn't work and the electric oven wouldn't get hot enough to broil. Three of Noreen and Steve's four children and spouses were coming down Thanksgiving week, so they had lots of frozen meats. We had lamb chops, fresh asparagus, salad with avocado, carrots and the rice left over from Tuesday's lobster dinner - AND a bottle of wine! If this was going to be our last dinner, it was going to be a good one!! Steve and John wrung out the towels from the leak in the bedroom while Noreen and Carolyn cooked. We finished eating and the electricity went off…great timing! We planned cold sandwiches for dinner.
The Flamingo staff distributed another letter telling everyone to stay inside and under no circumstances go outdoors. The 3 p.m. update noted that Lenny is at 18.0 N 62.2 W and the eye is within 10-15 miles of St. Maarten moving very slow, taking another 6-12 hours to pass over. The wind has been howling for over two hours and the aluminum gutter was torn off the condo next door. The sea wall in front of the unit beneath us has a large crack in it and finally came down about 2 p.m. exposing the lower unit's deck wall to the waves. This sea wall was just build last year and certainly performed a great job. Thank goodness the wall was there!
The 5 p.m. update noted that Lenny is at 18.1 N 63.1 W and weakening a little with 120 mph winds and the eye is diffused and maybe only ten miles from St. Maarten. We expected an 8 p.m. update on the radio, but the update never was given because the radio station changed radio announcers and only played music. Another night of Lenny ahead of us. With the generator electricity off, there was only a single emergency lamp lit over the dining area. Fortunately, Steve and Noreen had two diving lights. We were watching our palm tree barometers blowing steadily from the east. About 6:15 p.m., we saw a calming and thought the eye was coming through. The wind changed direction about 7 p.m. and now our west facing windows were taking the brunt of the wind, so we closed the front drapes. By 10 p.m. we bedded down ready to jump and run at any minute. Around 1 a.m. Friday morning, the rain gutters were being stripped from the units and either tumbling down the hallway or being blown about as they hung suspended from the framework. Another major piece of metal from somewhere came clanging down the hallway around 5 a.m. This time the winds were so severe in the inner hallway that it was very dangerous to open the door and probably impossible to go upwind.
We were up at 7:30 a.m. and the weather was calm…Is this it?…is it over?…Or is it the eye?… We were getting contradictory information. Some people, who were out and about, said the eye had passed over and laid between St. Maarten and St. Barts, others said that the eye was still on top of us. We took a walk around the outside of the complex to see what had happened. The higher up the hill we went, the stronger the winds became and you had to watch for flying small pieces of debris. A small tornado appears to have went through the complex for in a line across the property was an overturned 18-wheeler, sliding glass windows blown out of two units, one car flipped over and smashed into a unit in the C building, and another car tossed about. Lots of palm trees, pieces of wood, gutters, and broken glass were strewn all around. Across Simpson Bay we could see a large, 200 foot inter island freighter grounded on the beach. A favorite restaurant, Mary's Boon, lost its roof on the front units and the entire dining room and bar complex was collapsed on the beach. La Chatelaine, where we stay prior to our timeshare weeks, lost part of the roof and about 6-8 feet of sand from the beach side exposing their water and sewage tanks.
Between 7 and 10 a.m., Noreen and Carolyn began calling the states to tell our families that we were OK. Stateside people told us that the eye had gone over at 1 a.m. and was 100 miles east northeast between St. Maarten and St. Barts. This was more conflicting information since the islands are only about 30 miles apart. The phones then degraded as more people tried to call home making getting an outside line an impossible task. We latter read in the local paper that Tel-Em's (telephone company at St. Maarten) fiber optic cable was severed when a boat was stuck under the Simpson Bay bridge severing the cable until a temporary splice could be installed.
Friday morning…the storm appears to be over. The weather was cloudy all day, the surf is down to normal, and the winds are still strong about 30 mph. The Flamingo chef cooked eggs, toast, coffee and tea for anyone for breakfast. Electricity, toilets, and water are still not available. Electricity for the end units, where we are, is out because the breaker room is flooded and had to be pumped out. They finally got a three inch gasoline pump, but had trouble connecting and starting the pump. Other smaller pumps took all day to get the room pumped out. By 9:30am, the toilets were working for a short time. Flush, flush, flush…happiness is having a flushing toilet. By midday, the water was restored…jumped into the shower for a quick cold shower.
This afternoon started the cleanup. Many people volunteered to help rake sand, move rocks, clean sand from the walks, porches, and decks. Noreen and Carolyn helped clean the beach bar and were thanked with a free dinner! Dinner was served from the beach bar, but cooked in the chef's unit. Shrimp creole, rice, mixed veggies. Not gourmet, but tasty and filling.
We heard stories of other peoples experiences during the hurricane. The newest building at Flamingo is on the hill just below the Pelican unit B120 that we also own. This new building is a three story structure with large sliding glass doors facing south toward the ocean. This time facing the units took the brunt of the storm. Just the week before the hurricane, workmen were putting the finishing touches on the units for they were to be occupied the first week of December. There was no electricity, water, or toilets turned on yet. Some of the people, evacuated from the first floor condos of Flamingo, were put in these new units. As the winds came up on Wednesday night, the big sliding glass windows in two units broke out, wind came in and gathered all the furniture and threw it outside. Six people ended up together in the 3rd unit and propped a mattress against the windows and held the matress with their feet until the hurricane ended. Another couple with two children spent the rest of the time in the windowless bathroom after their front sliding glass window shattered and they were finally rescued Friday morning. A tourist in the Pelican unit had his fingertips severed when he opened the door in the height of the storm and the door slammed shut on his fingers. Sometimes, curiosity results in unexpected injuries.
Our contingency plan was to move from the living room area to the bedroom, then to the bathroom or to the outer ante-hallway. Fortunately, we didn't have to enact our emergency plan. Heavy spray from the waves hit our sliding glass doors a number of times, but the windows held and didn't leak or break. We heard many of the units did have water coming in through the sliding glass doors and the hallway doors. Flamingo and Pelican over all survived pretty well.
Our balcony faces east towards Simpson Bay. The airport is located across Simpson Bay, so we could observe all the activities at the airport except at night and during the main part of the storm. We cheered when we saw a Dutch P-3 Anti-sub aircraft fly around the island assessing the damage and then finally land at the airport! The airport is operational for supplies to come in late Friday afternoon. Some of the first aircraft were reserve US Air Force C-130's bringing in more pumps and drinking water.
What an experience of seeing Mother Nature in one of her most angry moods.
Saturday, November 20th, people were out working on the beach, pulling beach chairs out of the water, walking around, getting breakfast, but not venturing out of the complex. Noreen prepared a ham omelet and we brought out our gift bottle of champagne that we received from Pelican to celebrate our survival of hurricane Lenny. We cleaned up the condo, wiped down the windows to remove the salt water, then relaxed on the beach. Electricity and toilets went down again around 4 p.m. We were planning to barbecue steak on the grill but instead decided to go out to dinner at the Boathouse. Restaurants with generators were open, but most everything else was closed. Curfew was lifted from 2 p.m. till 8 p.m.
As we watched the activity at the airport, we saw that American Airlines (AA), who has the responsibility for certifying the airport completing their task around noon. US Airways came in to pick up their 5 p.m. passengers and the word went out to anyone on the beach that were flying US Airways to get packed and get over to the airport. We saw more Dutch military and coast guard aircraft landing at the airport and a Dutch frigate was off shore with their helicopter surveying damage. We understood that the Dutch had send 50 pumps to pump out Philipsburg, but the loaded DC-10 freighter is too heavy to land at St. Maarten. The pumps were off-loaded onto US Air Force C-130s in San Juan. We heard that AA were canceling their flights and running a "first come-first serve" service on Sunday. AA is the major carrier to St. Maarten having about three flights a day from New York, Miami, and San Juan. Hundreds of people are eager and ready to get off this island. No flights since last Tuesday. AA appears to have no emergency operating management plan to deal with hurricanes or disasters. For the major airline carrier that "owns" the entire Caribbean, this is unforgivable. Hurricanes happen and airlines should have emergency plans to evacuate the people from the islands. Both Saturday and Sunday are major tourist days for the timeshare units change to the next owner. The timeshares were 90% full this week, so there were lots of people on the island and lots needed to return home. Us retired folk had other options
Sunday was an absolute zoo at the airport. US Airways and Continental were servicing their customers, and we heard that when AA's representative appeared he told the passengers that they weren't able to do anything because their computers were down. There were no representatives to go among the crowd to answer questions or deal with problems. There was a near riot and the police were contemplating evacuating the airport. The AA manager didn't come to the airport on Sunday morning and finally the police went to his home and escorted him to the airport! A friend, who owns our unit the week before us, had gone to the airport, observed the happenings, and stopped at Flamingo to see us and how we survived. He and his wife, who were staying at the Orient Beach Club, were relocated to the boutique-food store that was built like a bunker. They spent two days locked up in the building with over 150 other guests. Other friends were relocated to the Esmeralda Resort that is located a little inland from the beach. Little damage occurred on Orient Beach, except that part of the Tiki Bar was undermined by the surf. The long distance lines from the Dutch side were not functioning well, plus they were overloaded with the traffic of people trying to call home and call AA. The only option for passengers was to call the states to a specific AA office because the AA 800 number didn't function. The French side of the island didn't receive as much damage and their phone system was fully operational, thus many people drove over to pay phones to contact AA and make reservation changes.
On Sunday morning John tried snorkeling in front of the Flamingo Resort. The water was quite turbid and he couldn't locate the Pelican beach umbrellas. He tried to retrieve one of the volley ball poles, but the concrete footing was too big to drag ashore. On Sunday afternoon, John tried to reconnoiter the island and drove through Marigot and tried to get to Orient Beach, but there were no gas stations open and he only got to this side of Grand Case and returned on gas fumes. Many boats were wrecked in the lagoon and around Marigot. Traffic was abdominal. On Monday, after getting gas, he drove around the salt pond and the back of Philipsburg and finally got to Orient for some beach time. One set of friends had left that morning for the airport, but the other, our Sunday morning visitor, was still there planning to leave when the airport became "reasonable". Several other people from Flamingo had also braved the high water of the salt pond to get to the beach. Snorkeling was OK. The water was much less turbid at Orient than in front of Flamingo, which had taken the brunt of the high surf. The fish were back, but a little skittish. Could not blame them!!
We decided to lessen the travel stress and call our niece, who is our travel agent, and have her work the ticketing problem from state-side. A lesson learned on this trip was to never get electronic tickets when going to a Third World location. When the computers go down, you have nothing to prove your flight schedule and/or get alternate flights home. Apparently, AA wouldn't book or confirm any flights out of St. Maarten until Wednesday, so we got a 4 p.m. flight to San Juan with our connecting flight home. On Tuesday AA sent quite a few representatives down to St. Maarten and they were at the airport working with the passengers more directly. The computers were now up and the flight schedule was back to the normal three flights a day. We went to the airport at 9:30 am on Wednesday to check our bag and get our boarding pass. There were three agents and about ten passengers waiting to check-in. The 4 p.m. flight took off with us and the flight was 40% empty!!!
We got to San Juan an hour later, but our suitcase had been left in St. Martin. Another AA problem? They only had the suitcase for six hours. We waited for a half hour and then the AA rep told us to file our claim in Dulles when we got there. We changed into "northern clothes" in San Juan and ran for our connecting flight. We got home about 10.
Great, exciting trip. Not to be repeated, we hope, with Lenny's brother next year.
Have you seen the photos yet?