Hurricane "Luis" 5/9/95

The sheer size of "Luis" can be appreciated (picture above). The day before St. Martin was hit. With the eye clearly visible.

The pictures above were taken at the same location in "The Lagoon" in Marigot. This is a landlocked lagoon only accessible by lift bridge.The first photo is clearly lovely, a week or so before Luis hit. The second shows Kamouraska a couple of hours into the storm and the third taken by myself is about an hour later. I must emphasize that the wind speed here is only about 50 knots, over the following twelve hours it increased to a constant 120 knots, gusting to 150 knots. Of the 1200 or so boats anchored in the lagoon at the time "Luis" hit, only a hundred or so were left floating the next day... I can only compare the devastation ashore as how I would imagine the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.

Afterwards; Kamouraska , others next to us and the once luxurious and elegant Marigot Marina.

The "Dakar", a French vessel from St.Barts helped by pulling boats back off the shoreline. Everyone mucked in and soon enough it was our turn, it was quite worrying though but over quickly.

The above photo's show Kamouraska being hauled from The Lagoon ready for repairs ashore. This land was kindly donated for our use by The French Authorities.
It all took a massive amount of effort and hard work to rebuild the Island again but it was all undertaken with gusto and by the start of the following tourist season almost all was as it was before, a tribute to the spirit and efforts of all involved.

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