Sint Maarten Irma Red Cross Roof Repair Project

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Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean in Sept. 2017 with an intensity rarely seen in the region. One of the strongest storms on record, the Category 5 hurricane was particularly devastating in its impact on small island states like Sint Maarten. More than two years after Hurricane Irma struck, many households are still feeling the impacts of the hurricane season, and many roofs remain unrepaired. In particular, vulnerable households that lack access to resources are struggling to repair and rebuild by themselves.The Dutch government has made funds available for the recovery of the island, channeled through a World Bank Trust Fund. An application from the Red Cross on additional funds for roof repair activities was approved during the Steering Committee of the Trust Fund on 16 July 2019. The aim of the NLRC Roof Repair Project is to complement efforts being undertaken by the Government of Sint Maarten under the World Bank-financed Emergency Recovery Project, specifically the roof repair component. The Government’s roof repair program focuses on houses that need substantial repair work, both for roofs and the building structure. The NLRC Roof Repair Project will focus on those houses that need only roof repairs, without needing any structural repairs, and target beneficiaries that are not part of the Government’s house repair program. The NLRC itself will be the main implementing agency for the project.The NLRC aims to repair an estimated 200 damaged house roofs from areas that were outside the initial project focus areas. NLRC-employed and supervised construction crews will repair the roofs to ensure faster and higher quality repairs than those realized under the homeowner-driven Phase 1 of the project. The construction crews are using an updated version of the reconstruction guidelines that are based on those originally developed by the NLRC in collaboration with a local engineering firm (ICE) and the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI). This proposed follows a prior NLRC roof repair project, integrating a number of key lessons learned, a detailed and tested project approach and established reconstruction technical guidelines. Furthermore, NLRC has an experienced team on the ground able to continue with roof repairs. The NLRC is the implementing agency for all components of the project.