WILLEMSTAD – The inhabitants of St. Maarten continue to feel the effects of hurricane Irma, where the majority of the island is still in a state of emergency. The infrastructure of the island has severely been affected, where at many places, the supply of water and electricity has yet to be restored. Business owners of St. Maarten are slowly grasping the magnitude and severity of the material damage to buildings and infrastructure, and the government is putting in motion clean up and rebuilding teams to resolve the situation. The business community was particularly saddened and disheartened by the additional damage…
Author: The Publisher
GREAT BAY — The Court of First Instance on St. Maarten, at the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (OM) of St. Maarten, agreed with the exceeding time limits for suspects currently detained pending further investigation and/or there day in Court. This in the case of all suspects that, due to the passage of Hurricane Irma, the time limits were not requested on time. The Public Prosecutor has submitted on Wednesday, September 13, a request in Philipsburg to the Court regarding Article 413 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The request was specifically in cases where the deadlines have expired.…
Philipsburg — Since the aftermath of hurricane Irma, a 24 hours curfew was issued by the Honorable Prime Minister William Marlin for the entire Dutch side of the island. As the situation on the island started to improve the Prime Minister changed this curfew to a more lenient one. This curfew is to allow law enforcement to provide the necessary safety and security for all citizens and to allow the clean-up services to continue with the cleaning. The present curfew is now valid from 03.00 p.m. to 08.00 a.m. the following day. As was decided and publicly announced by the…
HILVERSUM – NTR Caribbean Network, branch of the Dutch public broadcasting, will participate in the national action day “Nederland helps St. Maarten” on NPO 1 on Friday. The national Dutch television channel NPO 1 will try to raise funds for the hurricane victims in St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius. Throughout the day there will be updates, showing how citizens in the Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands can help the affected islands. Huge devastation Last week these islands were devastated by hurricane Irma. About 90 per cent of the homes in St. Maarten were damaged or are uninhabitable. Also, large…
PHILIPSBURG — With our island having suffered badly, both socially and economically by hurricane Irma, which has caused everyone to be affected significantly in their homes and businesses, Philipsburg Promotional Board, propose that the authorities are to set up a broad base Social and Economic Recovery body, made up of members from the various business sectors , social and business organizations. Such an organization can be an essential vehicle in advising government in an effective and proper manner on how best to return its people into good living environments and to jump start the island’s economy timely and efficiently. PPB compliments…
PHILIPSBURG — The past couple of days military and police units on Sint Maarten have put an end to large-scale robberies and looting. An unknown number of persons were detained. Due to lack of detention capacity, persons who did not commit very serious facts have been sent home. All video-material will be reviewed at a later date. Meanwhile, a lot of data from the internet about looting has been recorded by a combined policeteam. The available photos of these suspects will be shared via the internet and the public will be actively asked for assistance in identifying the suspects. At…
We in St. Maarten are resilient people. We have recovered once already from a major hurricane disaster 22 years ago when Luis hit the island followed by Hurricane Marilyn. This time around, Hurricane Irma hit the island hard, but it was spared a second hit when Hurricane Jose turned north. Despite that, the island was still hit by another storm. The storm of the looters with their looting and plundering. They have caused more damaged than any hurricane ever could because they have damaged the image of our island as The Friendly Island and they have inflicted major pain to…
THE BOTTOM – Following the hurricane Saba’s local government has been meeting with stakeholders to discuss a joint strategy in the aftermath of hurricane Irma. On Monday the Island Government met with grocery stores, restaurants, bars, hotels and hardware stores. As St. Maarten is Saba’s main route for the import of goods, the Island Government is assisting in establishing possible new routes. While the king praised Saba for it’s hurricane pre-planning and clean up, the critique on how St. Maarten handled it is growing. Also Saban Vanessa, who was on St. Maarten during hurricane Irma, is not happy about how…
AIRPORT — In an interview with Today.sx at the SXM Airport, Alberto Romero, Interim-President of the Central Bank of Curacao & St. Maarten (CBCS), said that he has received reports estimating damages so far in excess of 2,5 billion US Dollars. “This is not Guilders”, he stressed. “Dollars!” The interim-director of the CBCS had just arrived Tuesday afternoon on an Inselair charter to St. Maarten to evacuate 12 officials of the CBCS who were on St. Maarten during the passing of Hurricane Irma. “Right now there is nothing they can do on St. Maarten,” Romero pointed out. “So we thought…
PHILIPSBURG –Eveline Henriquez is struggeling with a huge moral dilemma: should she let her children be evacuated or not? “The oldest is old enough to let him leave to go to family in The Netherlands.” she says. “But the youngest is not and I don’t want to separate them from each other.” Photo caption: Sister Borgia School is one of the Catholic Foundation schools on St. Maarten. Photo by Today photojournalist, Milton Pieters. Eveline is manager of a large food distributor and knows better than anyone that normal food will not be easy to get on tables anytime soon. She…
