Ocean Club Omat Damage Report: Release October 20, 2008

[qlaval]

HURRICANE OMAR DAMAGE REPORT: Release October 20, 2008

Last week (October 13th – 16th) Hurricane Omar formed just north of Aruba. As the storm intensified during the day on the 14th Aruba experienced tropical storm force winds and rain from the northwest; the rain has not yet subsided. The island experienced flooding and power outages; presently all areas, other than hotels, still have intermittent electric due to the failure of several electrical sub-station generators. The local electric company should have all electric power back to normal within the next two months. The Aruba Ocean Club as well experienced flooding and extensive water damage to villas, pool pump room, as well as beach erosion. The staff has been working around the clock to ensure there is minimal guest disruption; however, there may be occasions where the Engineering team will need to work in an occupied villa. Over 120 rooms were negatively impacted from the driving rain and wind, some only with minor water intrusion and some with major damage. Those villas, mainly oceanfront, that experienced more sever damage have been taken out of order. Again, the disruption to our owners should only be minimal as most work is being done ‘behind the scenes’, although it will take several weeks to complete all repairs.

Please keep checking our web site http://www.arubaoceanclub.com for updates and I will keep you posted.
Call me if you have further questions.
Best Allan 301-299-2118.

After the storm and after clean-up - staff working hard to clean and repair damage.

 

[22go]

I was not aware of this. Was there any damage to the Surf Club? We are scheduled to arrive at the Surf Club on Nov. 8. The beach must be a mess.

 

[siki]

I was not aware of this. Was there any damage to the Surf Club? We are scheduled to arrive at the Surf Club on Nov. 8. The beach must be a mess.

This is from an email I received from the Surf Club today. We arrive this Saturday:


We did have a storm on the Island which affected our beach and operations.

Our beach was covered completely with sea weeds and we have a team of grounds working diligently on this, however we will need to wait for the nature to take its course so everything will go as normal again.

Our lazy river was temporarily out of service since there was water that went close to the machinery, and for security reasons we put the lazy river out of service until the weather permitted, the Lazy River is functioning as normal at the moment.

 

[richardm]

Looks like oceanfront reservations for the next few months will be effected..

 

[BobG7734]

Hi...i was at the Surf Club last week and it was more than a little strom...winds were about 50-60 mph straight out of the west (directly onto the Marriott beaches. Sea weed was piled 4 feet high in some areas but the next day they had heavy machinery out to clean up. Many fishing boats from the piers broke loose and also washed up damaged.

Several feet of beach in front of SImpply Fish was washed away with a could ot table/palaplas now in the water....fortunate we ate there Monday (using a Marriott 2 for 1 coupon!).

Many people hung out at Mumba's bar during the storm.

The staff was excellent...provided a lot of activities for kids.

Since many restaurants were closed they provided a full buffet at the hotel ballroom.

All in all everything did come through it OK...they said it was the worst storm in 25 years

 

[lovearuba]

Mentioned in Allan Cohens letter to owners

This was mentioned in a recent letter from the president of the Marriott ocean club owners group. To sign up for updates, access the web site. www.arubaoceanclub.com

 

[qlaval]

Ocean Club Photos UPDATE...

 

[qlaval]

More...

 

[Peteyp97]

Great Photos

These are unbelievable. That seaweed looks incredible!