TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Recommendations for the PPRN

In the Daily Herald today there was an article concerning the recommendations that will be made to the French PPRN.

https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islan...ations-for-pprn-at-close-of-10-day-visit

Hope this stops the protests.

It sort of sounds good to me, but will see what the local reaction is.

No telling how locals will react.

These are a step in the right direction.

I’ve thought about this alot recently given the uproar.

Obviously , if I were in their shoes as owners/renters in the low lying areas I would:

1) want proper storm shelters on the island to endure a Cat 5/6 200 mph storm.
—- I would think the whole island would want these -where are they?

2) would accept reasonable rules for reconstruction
—- readily available material for foundations, pilings, walls, windows, roofing
3) would recommend higher elevation for structures-this could be expensive
—— but I'm told in The US, taxoayers are paying to elevate coastal buildings and the owners enjoy less risk and lower insurance premiums. Not sure why I pay for that and probabky a big reason France sees another big insurance risk.


So, if everyone is properly evacuated to a safe shelter in advance of all hurricanes, it comes down to risk to structures and property and insurance costs. Some buy insurance, some dont.

I say protect lives and let other people decide to be waterfront and pay the insurance/accept the risks.
Government could also subsidize the cost of concrete piling equipment and materials cost to elevate more against storm surge

Irma was a rare beast, but not so rare to ignore. Obviously, some folks have now survived two hurricane seasons.