We got electric power at our house yesterday, 12 weeks to the day after Irma. No more gas generator 4 hours a day! Hot showers! Refrigerator MAKES ICE! Fans all night! There are 180 linemen, and a few women, on the island now from BBC Electric, Joplin MO. They are the Seal Team 6 of electric crews. I think about half of the island is powered. Still no telephone land line or CTV on island. 20% of the population has left.
I have been getting as-built topographic jobs from owners of destroyed houses that have the $$ to build a bigger, better house without waiting for insurance money. These are mostly older houses and likely to have had solar panels (electricity was/is about $0.40 /KWH). So I have seen at least $100,000 worth of destroyed panels. Enough work for now and I expect to get swamped.
Every day, well almost every day, things get a little bit better.
Glad to hear things are returning to "normal".?ÿ
My wife and I just spent a couple of weeks on St. Martin.?ÿ It was our first time there.?ÿ
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Saw the aftermath of Hurricane Irma - the Dutch side is much more cleaned up than the French.?ÿ Folks told us that the Dutch citizens, not the government, were handling most of their own cleanup so as to get their businesses up and running.?ÿ Tourism is apparently the biggest economic driver there.?ÿ Nobody had anything good to say about the French government.
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Did a day trip to St. Barts - there was very little evidence of the storm even though it was pounded too.?ÿ Was told that the big money on that island enabled them to quickly rebuild.
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We can only imagine the beauty of St. Martin pre-Irma.?ÿ We were very impressed with the friendliness of all the folks we spoke with.?ÿ We will go back.
@larry-best - how are things coming along in the USVI?
