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Will HMC still exist?

JoeCruisin

By JoeCruisin,
in Holland America Line

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Lithium

Lithium

Posted
Posted

At this point, hurricane force winds (80MPH+) extend up to 80 miles from the eye. Tropical storm winds (40MPH+) are up to 165 miles out. My guess is if the eye passes anywhere within 60 miles, most of the island will be a wreck. Just my opinion though, only time will tell facts.

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jhannah

jhannah

Posted
Posted

I can easily see the island having to be shut down to clean up at the very least (if not rebuild.) Some of the new enhancements are probably not finished yet. The materials for those will be scattered far out to sea by the hurricane, and will have to be replaced. It doesn't look pretty at this point.

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Krazy Kruizers

Krazy Kruizers

Posted
Posted

HMC is going to get hit and sustain damage. Those cabanas aren't built to handle high winds.

We took a cruise a number of years ago right after St Maarten and St Thomas and other islands had gone through a couple of hurricanes in a row. Our cruise ship was the first one to be allowed into St Maarten - and the devestation was unreal. St Thomas - the same thing.

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Esme

Esme

Posted
Posted
Isn't HMC either part of Little San Salvadore or maybe that is its official name?? ANyway, just heard Island of San Salvadore was taking a direct hit. I assume(???) LSS is near to SS??

 

HMC and Little San Salvadore are one and the same. It's really sad that the island will probably be destroyed but I am sure HAL will rebuild.

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Randyk47

Randyk47

Posted
Posted

Unfortunately it does look like HMC is going to get hammered. My wife and I were talking about it this AM and she's a professional engineer with 16 years of substantial construction background plus she grew up in hurricane country. Her "professional" opinion is that few, if any, of the structures at HMC could withstand a sustained cat 4 hurricane. Frances is huge so the concept of a direct hit is not really an issue. Obviously she's only going on "educated" speculation but said she won't want to volunteer to guard HMC right now. :( Having said that, it ain't over until it's over so there's always hope. We love HMC and would hate to see it totally trashed.

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petermccue

petermccue

Posted
Posted

Living in Houston (where we do get hurricanes) and having worked down near the Gulf at a couple of riding stables, I must say that if I was in charge of building HMC .. I would have designed it so that there was a hidden bunker/storage faciity/etc. that would hold all the equipment and supplies .. probably located as inland as they can make it.

 

I would make the cabanas such that they'd be able to be disassembled and put in said safe spot.

 

Now, whether anyone actually DID that, I don't know.

 

I know that the stable I worked at had a place they had build to hold the tack and equipment out of the way of the winds. They figured the stable itself (which was just a steel pipe frame with some plywood attached on the side) could be taken down as much as possible and hidden away to lessen the debris. Horses had a BIG pasture to escape into with several high spots and berms to shelter in, and the general feeling was it was better to build most of the stuff such that you could rebuild quick.

 

V

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sail7seas

sail7seas

Posted
Posted

I wonder how long it will take them to replace all of the lounge chairs that surely will wash out to sea. The barbeque area cannot withstand that sort of storm and wave goodbye to all of the picnic tables/benches.

 

I cannot imagine the cabanas will survive because it is doubtful IMO that they built that underground storage area as suggested above.

 

 

Randy: Thank you for that wonderful post describing what an expert with educated knowledge thinks will be at HMC.

 

PeterMccue.....I also enjoyed your post. Interesting.

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jollycruiser

jollycruiser

Posted
Posted
Just saw a report that San Salvador island is reporting 70 mph gusts already.

Unfortunately San Salvador is going to take a direct hit from the eye of the storm. The eye is headed at it like a rifle shot when viewed on the hurrucane time lapse. Looks to be 3-5 hours from now that the eye hits.

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DFD1

DFD1

Posted
Posted

Fortunately, there is a caretaker staff there who, I am sure, will be working frantically to secure the furniture and fxtures as best they can. The pavillions and other wood frame buildings will probably go. The docks and concrete construction (walls, walkways, etc.) might survive in some form or another. You can bet that they did everything possible to save whatever they could. Also, the work boat there is pretty good sized and they may have had time to take some things off the island to a safer place on the adjacent, more populated island. I know HAL has done everything they can to what is one of the company's most valuable marketing assets.

Keep your fingers crossed. We're scheduled to be there on November 27. HMC is an important reason that we have selected HAL over the past few years.

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DFD1

DFD1

Posted
Posted

Fortunately, there is a caretaker staff there who, I am sure, will be working frantically to secure the furniture and fxtures as best they can. The pavillions and other wood frame buildings will probably go. The docks and concrete construction (walls, walkways, etc.) might survive in some form or another. You can bet that they did everything possible to save whatever they could. Also, the work boat there is pretty good sized and they may have had time to take some things off the island to a safer place on the adjacent, more populated island. I know HAL has done everything they can to protect what is one of the company's most valuable marketing assets.

Keep your fingers crossed. We're scheduled to be there on November 27. HMC is an important reason that we have selected HAL over the past few years.

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JoeCruisin

JoeCruisin

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We're heading there on a cruise the first week of November. Hopefully the damage won't be that bad and they'll be able to rebuild/repair quickly. If not, at least we'll still have a great ship to enjoy. Unfortunately, I have not been to HMC before and I was really looking forward to it after reading so many positive posts about it. Normally I could care less about a private island but it seems like HMC is/was quite the place.

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Orcrone

Orcrone

Posted
Posted

Jollycruiser,

 

HMC is on Little Salvador Island, not San Salvador Island. Looking at your link it's the small dot that's north-northwest of the eye. There's the island that's shaped like a backwards L. Just to the west of the northern end of the island is a white dot. That's where HMC is located. Looking at the visible loop it appears that Frances is running slightly north of the official forecast. If that's the case HMC will definitely feel Frances' impact, but the eye will hopefully miss it.

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DFD1

DFD1

Posted
Posted

The Bahamians...sounds like you're not to confident in them. I expect there is a company representative there who can get things done. Besides, they manage to keep the place in great shape week in and week out with lots of wear and tear, especially in the winter when several ships call there each week. I've been there several times and it always looks pretty well kept.

In this case, I'd give the Bahamians the benefit of the doubt. I hope they got right to it and secured the island as best they could. It would be a shame to lose it for an extended period of time.

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