President Donald Trump’s $17 million beachfront Caribbean mansion survived Hurricane Irma relatively unscathed, its red roofs standing in stark contrast to the toppled buildings littering the rest of St. Martin.
St. Martin was 95 percent destroyed after Hurricane Irma tore through on Sept. 6 bringing with her 225 mph winds. The island’s four strongest buildings were destroyed, a French official told the Epoch Times, yet somehow the sprawling Trump villa was largely left standing.
Drone footage obtained by the Daily Mail revealed splintered palm trees and once-opulent swimming pools blackened with fetid water. A gazebo roof was also ripped from it structure and lay collapsed on the beach.
First photos emerge of Donald Trump’s boarded up, hurricane damaged estate on St. Martin. pic.twitter.com/76AmKDSBPk
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) September 20, 2017
The grounds of the five-acre complex at the estate, named “Chateau des Palmiers,” appeared to suffer the brunt of the damage, but the 11-bedroom home appeared intact, its windows and doors boarded up.
The Trump Organization took “proper precautions and protections” to mitigate the damage from the hurricane, spokeswoman Amanda Miller told The Epoch Times as the storm was touching down on St. Martin.
“The safety and security of our guests, members and colleagues is our top priority and we are closely monitoring Hurricane Irma. Our teams at the Trump properties in Florida are taking all of the proper precautions and following local and Florida state advisories very closely to ensure that everyone is kept safe and secure,” she said at the time.
Other homes in the St. Martin neighborhood did not fare so well. The roof of a neighboring luxury home was reportedly ripped off and Dieter Schaede, a local realtor on St. Martin, told The Washington Post that homes in that neighborhood were severely damaged.
Chateau des Palmiers is currently for sale for $16.9 million — $2.8 million less than Trump purchased it for in 2013.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach also had luck on its side as Irma ripped through Florida.
The private resort suffered no major structural damage, though it did see some leaks coming through the roofs. A rear parking lot also flooded and several trees and shrubs on the grounds were destroyed, the Palm Beach Daily News reported.
