TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Going ‘OVER THE HILL’ beware….

Just want to share an unpleasant island experience in light of the possible heavy rain forecasts. Hopefully they won’t materialize but jic……..

A few years ago we met dear friends at Mark’s for dinner. It had rained much of the afternoon but had stopped by dinner time so we went ahead with our plans. About half way through dinner the heavens opened up again and it started to pour once more. Never having been on island and out and about in that kind of weather we had more or less an attitude of ‘how bad could it be?’

We soon found out. Traveling in that storm was a HUGE MISTAKE!!

We finished dinner and even though our friends offered us their hospitality overnight our thoughts were more or less how bad could our trip back to BSV possibly be?!

It was possibly one of the worse experiences of my life and after the fact my DH echoed the same sentiments.Water was streaming down the main road and I came to understand how a vehicle could easily get washed off the road and add to that, the rain was causing debris to stream down the hillside and land in the roadway. Fortunately the only large boulder we encountered had come to a full stop before we got to it. But there was unbelievable amounts of mud, small rocks and other debris all over the road. Had we an inkling of what we were getting ourselves into we would definitely have stayed with our friends.

And then we had the decision to make at the bottom of the rotary- should we take the normal road back to Simpson Bay and deal with the areas that always flooded or take the road that would ultimately lead us to the causeway? Neither was a great option but we ended up heading toward the causeway. It was seriously flooded out and we literally prayed our little white Corolla would get us through the deep waters and safely back home. We actually had rainwater coming into the car. Sorry,
Lesley, but no real harm done.

Throughout all our trips to the island we had NEVER experienced anything quite like that and for sure, we NEVER will again.

If the rains happen in that magnitude, please stay safe!

Good advice. I’ve seen some large rocks in the street right after a strong rain. Can’t imagine getting hit by one. Sometimes these strong storms surprise and you get stuck in one.

Hi Pat! This happened to Dave and I one year in August at my bd time. It was so scary and rocks and bolders were coming onto roads in Philipsburg. A lady was killed when her car washed away.

I had not heard about the lady who was killed but having been out in this weather just once I can easily understand how it might have happened.

I didn’t post about this to be an alarmist but this was the first time in our almost fifty years of annual SXM trips I ever had cause for concern over our personal safety in driving about the island and the possibilities of what ‘could happen’ had never occurred to us before this night.

Our friends who live relatively close to Marks tried to forewarn us but we didn’t take the situation or their words of warning seriously enough.

As we headed up the hill towards Link Road the torrential rainwater was actually causing the car to slide a bit. Thank heavens we didn’t meet much other traffic and the little we did encounter was all very considerate and dealing with their own issues.

And once we started down the hill towards the roundabout the debris in the road became our issue.
It was a scary ride and should those torrential rains happen with this latest weather front I hope other visitors will be forewarned to stay off the roads until it passes.

Pat--fortunately, we haven't had to deal with that hill and a big rainstorm, but I do remember one time when the roads on the French side were literally running a foot deep in water. We were able to high tail it 'home', but it was a scary situation, for sure.

The main road from the bottom of the roundabout all the way to the causeway was pretty much under water but we didn’t know that at decision time but in our case, ‘slow and steady’ won the race. Until, that is, we had to deal with the flooded areas around Maho Bay and white Sands. But that was cake by comparison to what we’d already encountered.

Thank you Pat, I would have 'chanced' it like you did. But now I know how dangerous it can become.

OB_JB,

You are very welcome. If just one person benefited from reading my original post I’m glad I took the time to share our personal experience.

Should have stayed up on Sugar Hill Road or whatever it's called. Very dicey. And I do remember the lady that was killed. Was it a rock slide or something?
irina

I think that they may have cut grooves in since then, but the steep alternate route from the roundabout to the hospital / Belair / Divi used to be like a sheet of ice in heavy rain.

Wow, such good advice!