The "Getting Back To Normal ... One Store At A Time" Story

The Guavaberry Logo

It was an ordinary day.  Opened Travel Talk Online (TTOL) and began reading a very interesting, but yet moving letter written by Stephen Thompson who is the managing director of Sint Maarten Guavaberry.  You may recall that on September 6 of this year the island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten was consumed by Hurricane Irma, a 5+ monster with winds in excess of 185 mph.  Much of the island was totally destroyed.  Carol and I have been in touch with a young woman on the island who we have been renting from for years.  Recently received a note from her telling us her home survived and she and her family are safe.  She is hoping that when Carol and I are ready to return in the spring that she will have a place ready for us.  

LDub making a visit to the
Guavaberry Store in Sint Maarten.

Time to begin a regular routine, if possible, so the island can get the tourist's dollar back into circulation and help the island recover.  It's tough to realize what is happening on the island, but the letter posted yesterday by Mr. Thompson may help all of us understand what the residents of the island have had to endure.  Mr. Thompson's business, The Guavaberry Emporium was always one of our stops when we visited the island and I have posted a few stories on this blog about the products they sell and the people who work at the store.  Read the following letter and you will see the reselince that is needed to return to normalcy and how the islanders are coping.  Life goes on in most of our lives, but for those on St. Martin/Sint Maarten, it is going to be a long trip back before they feel they are back to normal once again.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

Dear Friends of Sint Maarten Guavaberry, 

I am writing to give you a brief update on the visit of Hurricane Irma on 6 Sept 2017. Our Guavaberry office PCs were out for six weeks. If you wrote to us to offer moral support I am writing to thank you and to apologise for this long 8 week delay.

On 6 Sept, we on Sint Maarten/St Martin, St Barts and Anguilla, lived through the visit of eye of Hurricane Irma, 185 mph winds, gusting to 215 mph, the single strongest and most dangerous storm on record. Everything was knocked out - roads, seaports, airports, electricity, telephone, internet, water, transportation, homes, schools, churches, shops, supermarkets, marinas, boats etc. Every car on the island was damaged.

All our staff are OK. Some lost “everything”. Many lost their whole roof. Some had to evacuate to safer locations, in unheard-of lethal wind and blinding rain, terrified, alone or with young children and babies, in complete darkness, in the middle of the storm, in the middle of the night. And others, retreated to concrete bathrooms or huddled and piled up in concrete shower stalls for hours on end until the winds subsided. Young homeless families have been split up with children farmed out to those friends, relatives and neighbours who could help. And a few, some in houses with flat concrete roofs, suffered only minor damage. Outside of nuclear power plants elsewhere and the like, little was specifically built to withstand 185-215 mph winds.

The ancient Guavaberry Emporium, on the front of our idyllic premises in the middle of Historical Philipsburg at #8-10 Frontstreet, is a National Monument. It sits on the site of a short-lived Jewish Synagogue, built around 1784 and abandoned in the early 1800s. It contains our flagship shop, our offices and our small factory. It stood up to this storm really well. Our larger surrounding buildings – outhouses and storerooms were very badly damaged or destroyed completely. All our treasured trees, ancient tamarinds, almond and sea grape trees were decimated. I think we lost 30-40 years of tree growth.

Large natural disaster emergency response teams from France and the Netherlands brought huge quantities of water and food and supplies and machinery, materials and manpower to assist with the clean up. A dozen international charities showed up with tarps and water and food, tents and more. Marines from both nations provided vital security and enforced the curfew which facilitated a swift and orderly cleanup. They are still involved in rebuilding, even on a grand scale and also on a personal level, fixing roofs and houses in the neighborhoods.

While the airport has been receiving lots of emergency flights all along, on 10.10.17, Princess Juliana Int Airport reopened for commercial air traffic. Temporary buildings have been created while the beautiful almost new airport building undergoes extensive $100 Million repairs. Many of the airlines are flying again. Few in the outside world realised that the small airport in Grand Case, French St Martin, was open and fully operational from mid September with three daily Air France flights to and from Guadeloupe and the world. 

Cruise ships will return in mid December. The world famous Frontstreet stores are eager to reopen but at this time there are no potential customers walking the streets. I expect that most will be open in a week or two, even if just to show some signs of normalcy. If you or your friends are on Sint Maarten, shoot us an e-mail and we will be delighted to open our shop just for you.

The clean-up efforts have been incredible. Parts of the island look good. Alas, other parts of the island bear witness to what transpired here and those horrors will not disappear anytime soon. The emphasis on cleaning and fixing up and jump starting the economy is progressive and essential and a testament to the resilience of local people and businesses and government. But take a moment to recognize that there is and has been an enormous amount of human suffering and hardship here. By dawn on 7th September, this island looked like a warzone. Most sane people were in a state of shock. 

The Guavaberry retail stores are still closed. Our internet business allows our friends in the USA to keep our hot sauce products in the kitchen and on the table and this is always important to us. At this time when all our other wholesale and retail sales are below zero, our internet business keeps us busy and gives us hope. Remember that we cannot ship any of our rum products directly to “end-users” off island.

Our Guavaberry Rum Liqueur and our Republic Rum 5 and 8 year old vintage rums are available in liquor stores in the USA. You will read some locations on our website if you dig down well. Unfortunately inventory in the US is a bit low now and it will take some time to get it replenished. We received an order for the US in late August. Well September and October were wiped out by the storms, first preparing for them and the clean up and recovery. So, next week we will finish that order for the USA. It will leave here in two weeks. It will take 2 weeks to get to the US. Then it will take another 2 weeks to get to the stores. This is my best estimate for the time frame involved.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your support.

Stephen Thompson

Managing Director