Severe Hurricane Irma Damage in St Maarten Forces Cancellation of WSOPC

Wow. It's worse than we thought -- and we knew it was going to be pretty bad. Hurricane Irma hit the West Indies this week and there has been catastrophic damage to some of our favourite Caribbean islands.  All of the resorts in Punta Cana, and St Maarten that we've been to for poker tournaments have sustained heavy damage.

St Maarten was hit so hard that the organizers of the WSOPC tournament that we planned to attend in November have no choice but to cancel the event.  No one knows when the airport will re-open and the host hotel is cancelling all reservations for the remainder of 2017.

HURRICANE IRMA: Devastation in St Martin #Caribbean #HurricaneIrma https://t.co/onFPE52a0X pic.twitter.com/1sd89vurgZ

— WIC News (@WIC_News) September 6, 2017

"Because of the circumstances the WSOPC Caribbean Poker Festival, November 1-15, 2017, is officially cancelled. All prepaid reservations will be refunded," read a statement from the organizers, TK Poker.

Official Statement of Sonesta Maho Resort & Casino where the WSOPC was to have taken place:

"All guests and staff of Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Royal Casino are safe and unharmed.

The damages to Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Royal Casino are severe, as is widespread damage and destruction on our beloved island of Sint Maarten. Severe damage has also occurred at Princess Juliana International Airport, and we do not have news as to when the airport will resume operations.

The Sonesta St. Maarten executive team and management are doing their best to assist guests who are at the resorts to remain safe, secure, and as comfortable as possible until they are able to depart Sint Maarten—this is our primary concern. Guests are currently in on-property safe areas at the resorts.

Due to the damages the resorts suffered, all further reservations from now through the end of 2017 will be cancelled."

Our thoughts are with the wonderful people of St Maarten and the Dominican Republic. We'll let you know when we hear of ways we can help them through this.

We'll also be thinking about our friends in Florida where Irma is headed this weekend.