Hi, we just got back to New York this morning from Punta Cana. Our flight left after midnight last night from Punta Cana.
We stayed at the Occidental Grand Flamenco.
Things were very bad, our tour operator, Apple Vacations evacuated all their guests on Sat, regardless of when their return dates were.
Damage at the Flamenco is substantial. Although I would't characterize the damages as structural, it will take some time to repair eveything.
I don't even know where to start.
Roofs were damaged/blown off on many buildings.
In our building, the power went out Wednesday evening and was on and off through Sat. The water was out for signficiant time as well. Flooding in the rooms were severe. Rain poured in on the third floor and the sewers backed up in the first floor rooms. We were on the second floor of building 13 and were fairly dry, but we saw rooms on the building which looked like they had waterfalls in them. The flooding outside was severe, there was a foot of water in the walk paths. From the smell, it seems the septic systems fooded and there was sewage flowing around. Trees were blown over, the light posts were blown over, all the grass huts and sheds were destroyed. The pool is in terrible shape and it will take weeks for that to be drained and cleaned (particularily in light of the sewage problem).
We were told that supplies were running low (food/water/gas) and asked to conserve.
The Royal Club guests seemd to fair better as power and services wre reatored there before the rest of the resort.
Servicewise they hotel did a very good job under the circumstances.
All the restaruants were closed except for the main buffet and that suffered severe leaks and damage. They did a very good job at damage control afterwards. Afterwards they handed out candles, extra towels and brooms/mops and squeegees to guest to help control the damage.
At the airport during the evacutaion, we meet some guests that were evacauted from Secrets by military helicopter, apparently things were very bad up there. Theose guests wound up sleeping outside the airport Firday night (not in the airport).
We were also told that the horse ranch (next to Secrets?) flooded badly and over 30 horses drowned.
We were told several other hotels were shut down completely.
It seems like we were very lucky at the Flamenco, from the stories, other hotels faired far worse.
As to reports by management, we learned that although locals began evacuation Wednesday morning, we were not told of the storm until Wednesday evening and even then we told it was small and nothng to worry about. Later they told us it was worse than expected. We received no instruction on how to deal with the storm and were left to fend for ourselves.
As we left on Sat, the cleanup begain to progress, although cosmetically I think they'll get the resort looking fair quickly, it'll be some time till its fully functional. I would advise those who can delay the trips to do so.