EDITORIAL
One week after taking a direct hit from the strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history, the islands where this newspaper appears are slowly but surely starting to recover. The devastation in St. Maarten/St. Martin was so severe and widespread that practically everyone had to deal with their own problems before even being able to assist others.
Power is back in some areas, but mostly unstable and temporarily cut off and on. Running water is also being resorted on a limited basis. Gas stations open for a few hours and are immediately swamped, while food stores, pharmacies, etc., open from time to time to serve a limited number of people.
The latter in part has to do with widespread looting following the monster that was Irma, not just of essentials, but also luxury goods. Also stores with little or no damage were broken open by these unscrupulous criminals. People, including tourists, were robbed of their valuables even in hotels.
However, the majority of people are just trying to get their lives back together in an honest and correct manner. One can only imagine how much worse things would have been for them if Hurricane José that followed had not stayed at a safe distance.
Authorities, with much appreciated support from sister islands, the Netherlands, France, the US as well as many other countries and organisations, are doing their best. It is a pity that emergency rations and drinking water containers flown in since last Thursday are only now being distributed in the districts, although at least local water trucks did go to several areas so people could fill buckets, etc.
Evacuation of various population groups by planes and even by ship were organised by their respective home countries for mostly foreign residents and temporary inhabitants. This should not be seen as “abandoning” those staying behind but, especially where it regards persons left home- and jobless, as relieving the island of a burden it simply cannot carry at the moment.
For now it will be up to the inhabitants to normalise the situation with assistance from elsewhere until the rebuilding with insurance monies and, hopefully, funding from abroad can begin, for which workers will no doubt again come from abroad too. But as chairman of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT Raymond Gradus correctly stated, St. Maarten will not be able to get back to its feet completely without either budgetary assistance or soft loans, making use of whatever international recourse is available.
With 80 per cent of the island’s room inventory out of service, getting the tourism economy to rebound won’t be easy, but is extremely necessary. Experience after Hurricane Luis has shown that especially the repeat visitors St. Maarten is known for will remain loyal and return as soon as reasonably possible.
We hope to publish a newspaper again as soon power and water are fully restored and the situation regarding the usual points of sale has normalised. In the meantime we will try to keep our readers abreast of developments via our website and Facebook page.
It must be said, the provision of information by Government and other relevant organizations could be better, which no doubt had to do with persistent telecommunication issues. Still, The Daily Herald remains positive about the outlook for the future, as long as badly-needed help continues to come our way.
This is a community of mostly hard-working people who will do what is needed to recover and rebuild, hopefully even better and stronger than before. The world also needs to understand that Irma with her 185-miles-per-hour sustained winds was “no ordinary hurricane” and precautionary measures that might have sufficed for others understandably fell short.
Nevertheless, “The Friendly Island” will indeed rise from the ashes like a phoenix and –while it may still seem very far away at this point – be ready to again welcome its guests in happier times.
The Publisher
