Photos/Videos from our St Thomas tour

Hello all. I thought some of you might like to see how St Thomas appeared to us on November 6. We were in on the Oosterdam and after wandering around town for a while we picked up a two hour island tour from a local tour guy - can't remember his name. He had a full load though and we were glad to spend some money in St Thomas. We've been there so many times we felt we should try to do our bit.

Anyway, here's a collection of videos and photos I took from the safari bus. There are several photos and videos in here. Give the videos a few seconds to load before hitting hte right arrow to go to the next picture or video.

https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipO2d8ZbDAwvZ-kfBHT2iKLhMXA0-e9QJRLkL_pU

They're not professional by any means but I just wanted to try and capture the state of the island away from the town.

My impressions of the island:

1. The immediate downtown area was ok but there were some stores that had yet to re-open. Quite a few actually.

2. Havensight was back up and running almost fully except for a few places. Lots of destruction out there though to places like Senor Frogs.

3. The hillside cable cars are shut down

4. Away from the immediate down town area is depressing devastation. That's about the best way I can describe it.

5. We stopped at Sapphire Beach - one of my favourite beach days I have ever had. Its a shell of its former self. Beach pretty much wiped out, trees destroyed, bar was missing a roof, the condos out there look abandoned- the weather that day didn't help but man it was depressing. I imagine all the beaches are in similar shape.

6. On the streets away from the town there's power lines down and stuff strewn everywhere. Again, depressing to see.

7. Meaghans Bay from the top of the island looked in rough shape but that's from far away. It wasn't open at that time and you'll see from the video that there's a large collection of water behind the beach.

In short, the island probably wasn't ready for a visit in November and it may not be fully ready yet but I'm glad we went. We wanted to show the people that we're there in good times and bad and we were able to drop some cash in the town. It will take a long time for St Thomas to return to its former self.

After touring the island and talking to several people, it is apparent that this island is getting only a fraction of the help it needs. There are people who cannot qualify for food stamps because they made too much money LAST YEAR. In many cases their businesses have been wiped out or are completely shut down. After seeing the amount of post hurricane debris laying around, there didn't seem to be any organized effort to clean it up. The amount of downed power lines and poles was not a surprise but I didn't see the number of power line workers I was expecting. If there is an organized structure to this clean up and restoration, it isn't apparent to the naked eye.

Lastly let me say this. The people were warm and welcoming, more so than on previous visits. It is obvious they've been hit and hit hard and they're doing everything they can to welcome people back.

Thank you for your extensive report and for the video.

Keith

Thanks for the report. Would have liked to see your video and photos, but I don't have a Google account and don't want one.

Thanks for the report. Would have liked to see your video and photos, but I don't have a Google account and don't want one.

I don't think you need a google account to view them. I just went to the link in Firefox without logging in and with a VPN and they displayed. Give it a try and let me know.

Nope, gives me an error and says page doesn't exits.

I signed into my Google account and also got an error. But thank you for describing the situation. We'll be in St. Thomas in February, and I’m trying to decide what to do there and what’s available.

Nope, gives me an error and says page doesn't exits.

I signed into my Google account and also got an error. But thank you for describing the situation. We'll be in St. Thomas in February, and I’m trying to decide what to do there and what’s available.

I logged into my Google account and am also getting the message that the page doesn't exist. OP, thank you for the descriptions, but just so sad to hear. We've been to Sapphire Beach twice now and loved it, it's such a shame to hear of the destruction.

Same here. Have a Google account but was unable to open the link.

Appreciate you sharing your experience, thanks for the details.....but can't view the photos either, and I do have a google acct. Still, great to hear,. We're arriving early January and I don't have the expectation that things will be back to "normal".

I also can’t view the images, but thank you for sharing. Your description of Sapphire Beach breaks my heart.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

404 error code loading. Thanks for the recap

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We were told by our cruise line Azamara that we would be replacing a scheduled port for St. Thomas on 12/31/17.

I have tried to follow their progress rebuilding on many sites.

Thank you for your honest assessment of what you experienced. We have been to St. Thomas many times.

We will do the best that we can and try to contribute to their rebuild in some small way.

They need revenue and we will try to honor their needs during our visit.

Did you dock at Crown Bay or Havensight?

I need to think about where and how we can do our best in visiting the downtown area or Havensight.

Guys - sorry for the google errors. I posted my videos to you tube - here they are

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and a few more

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Awww. These videos break my heart. I love St. Thomas, especially the people and Sapphire Beach.

Sapphire looks pretty bad, others are saying that the damage is not so much but this clearly shows much damage and defoliation. Just wondering what beach would be the best to visit in early Feb, Megan's Bay or Sapphire? Any recommendations as to which will be in better shape by then?