TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin New Beach Bars/Restaurants on Orient Beach

Are there any verified reports, or hopefully photos, of what happened to the new structures along Orient Beach?

I can read reports on Club Orient, and I've seen photos of Orient village, but haven't seen anything at all about Orient Beach itself. Did I just overlook it?

Anyone?

gary

It has been reported that The Perch, La Playa, Kontiki and Pedros are all gone. With that being said, there was an image of the Kontiki location with a blue building to the south of it that appeared to be intact.

Based on the photo I have seen of the Orient Village area I would have to say that there is nothing left of Bikini Beach either.

From the photos I've seen, Pedro's is completely gone, as well as all the new little buildings. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Sad.gif" alt="" />

Even the cliff that Pedro's was on apparently disappeared!

Wow! When you say "gone" you mean GONE...sad

It's like the Island is going back in time 20 years..with a little added crime

Much further back than 20 years.

This set of pictures includes pictures all the way along Orient from Mt Vernon to Papygayo's. You will see what is left of the new buildings.

https://www.facebook.com/roberto.sxm.7/m...amp;pnref=story

Can not see pics.

Pics (plenty) are there but it's hard to tell what's what...

Honestly, that may not be a bad thing in the grand scheme of things.

Hmmmm, papagayos looks near collapse at the ocean end than in previous pictures. Certain chalets look pretty good compared to previous pics.

the roofs of the new beach bar thingies look "new", but they were swept off their walls and laying on the ground. The stone retaining walls are still their in some way.

Their are a set of cars that i would guess are on the road to mt vernon near sole luna that look like they all caught fire...arson?

I expected old mt vernon to do better but it took a hit. Dont knowmif that is the same type damage luis caused to roofs, etc?

Based on reports and photos, everything at Orient Beach that could have been considered "beach-front," including the new buildings and the "five stars," is either literally gone or so badly damaged as probably to require rebuilding from scratch - with the possible exceptions that some existing concrete could be reused for footings and maybe parts of a couple concrete structures are usable. I do not think anybody believed anything along the beach was built to survive or would survive a direct hit from a Cat 5 - especially the new buildings.

OMG...heartbroken. But WE WILL RETURN! I am sure that Orient Beach will recover...
Has anyone heard from Sophie from Coco Beach? SO worried about her.

OMG......kept hearing wiped out...but never imagined it was THAT much wiped out. Great decision by collective to build that sea wall.....and move the ''new shacks'' back about twenty yards. Those poor restaurant owners and staff...that was forced out of business for almost a year, while they ''improved'' the area....and then came back, and spent a ton of money to retrofit the new buildings to their own stuff.....and in less than a year and a half....it's all gone again!!!!!! Once again, my heart goes out to these people... and PRAY for all of them.

Here's what's left of those new (I think there were four) structures they built to house Beach Bars in the vicinity of Brothers, Chez Leandra, Orange Fever etc. (next to Pedro's) that were destroyed in Hurricane Gonzalo in Oct 2014. - Took about a year to get them built and what did they get out of these? Barely two years before they're gone again! It really makes you wonder about the practicality of rebuilding them.

I am not well versed in construction, but is there a chance that a rebuild will take less time, assuming foundations and services were underground? Then it would just be the above groundwork that would need to be done. I know this doesn't help the owners/operators with regard to their equipment.

Modi.....those are the pictures i was referring to. Just one correction....the older shacks were NOT destroyed by Gonzalo....just damaged...and they all were repaired in the matter of a week or so after the storm. It was the collective that decided to destroy them, and build those ''state of the art'' new buildings. It was the COLLECTIVE that destroyed those livelihoods for almost a year. It was the COLLECTIVE that decided to build the new buildings, so they can gouge a ridiculous amount of rent from the people that worked for so many years. No one can be surprised that the new buildings didnt withstand even one storm. We all commented about the ridiculous construction as we saw it being built. Who could've actually thunk that the ''wall'' would've held back the ocean...even in a smaller storm. And none of us can forget the finished product....that had a vinyl sail for a roof over the original new decks. It was a disaster waiting to happen....just happened way to soon for these great people that make our day at Orient so special. I do hope that these people don't decide to bail on us....and rebuild.

Shows the limitations of governmental central planning.