TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin The Cliffs

Haven't seen anything anywhere about how The Cliffs in Cupecoy weathered Irma. Curious to the answer as it was touted as built for up to 200 mph winds by the developer when under construction. My guess is that it did just fine and the construction methods used should be the template for any future construction done on large projects on the island.

My friend owns an apartment at Rainbow Beach Club, adjacent to The Cliff. A couple was staying at his apartment during Hurricane Irma. Here is what he heard from the couple immediately after the hurricane: "They said that the Cliff was a mess with most windows blown out and and damage to balconies as well as the exterior walls." I'm not sure how accurate this report was, or what the situation is now.

It's all true.

Correct and our Adjuster has the big job to work on it's report.

Understand the upper levels were impacted more severely than lower levels.

I had heard a “rumor” that there is also structural or foundation issues? I know Cupecoy Beach Club was littered with blue glass from the building that was supposed to be 200 mph impact resistant?

I was trying to remember back to when The Cliffs was under construction and perhaps my remembrance is wrong but was it done with poured concrete all the way up or with more traditional construction/framing methods? I’m fairly certain our building was poured concrete all the way up and it seems those are the buildings, among the more recent construction, that seem to have sustained the lesser damage. Perhaps that’s something that should be taken into consideration moving forward as the Island rebuilds?

Then again, I’m always amazed that buildings such as the Courthouse and the Pasanggrahan, both seemingly basic wood construction, have managed to survive all these many years and many storms. There used to be an old rule of thumb that nothing should (could, would?) be built any taller than a palm tree. Perhaps there was more than one reason for that logic? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Did see this: http://today.sx/news/post-hurricane-irma-interview-sophia-kelly/

I see all of these claims about buildings designed to support 200mph winds and wonder how many actually could.

"Looking at the long term, Kelly said that the entire building has to be re-engineered from the frame work and she estimates that the restoration will take between two to three years." Holy cr*p!! Does that mean that the building is uninhabitable until then?

Yikes

THE CLIFF ( not Cliffs) was swaying in the wind like all the high rises. It could have collapsed like a high rise in an earthquake. Luckily it stood up but the swaying causes major damage to the structural support of the poured concrete. The winds were sustained 185 MPH with gusts over 230 MPH for about 6 hours.

That is just unfathomable. It's amazing that anything withstood that. I don't care how good your building codes are, that magnitude of a storm is going to at least damage, if not destroy, most structures.

We have been wondering about The Cliff and Rainbow Beach Club. There are a few condos at the Rainbow Beach Club for rent for the time period we would like to come back. They claim they had no damage in their units. Does anyone have knowledge as to the condition of the resort itself? Could it be possible that these units would be okay to rent in March 2018? Thanks for the information.

There might be some that could be repaired in time, however there is a lot of damage done on both buildings.

The friend I quoted above owns two apartments at Rainbow Beach Club, adjacent to each other. One sustained severe damage, with windows blown out. The other had no damage. Strange, isn't it? So it's possible that some apartments are in good enough shape to be rented out.

There were quite a few undamaged units at RBC, and now quite a few more have been repaired. They buildings themselves were undamaged but doors, windows and the stone balusters on railings on Tower building were destroyed by wind and therefore water and wind blew through. Some worse than others. Last I heard pools had been cleaned and were being refilled. Can give you first hand in a week or so.