October 13, 2017 6910 Great Bay. St. Thomas. USVI 00802 0 0 Dear Fellow Ritz-Carlton Club Member, It saddens us to report that our Club will be closed at least through March 2nd and quite likely even beyond the end of our high season April 28th. We hope to announce early next year a date certain for reopening. In the meantime, we encourage Members to exercise great caution in making any non-refundable airline reservations to St. Thomas between now and late April in the expectation the Club might be open. Here are some of the factors that weighed heavily in our decision: The Club buildings withstood the two hurricanes with only minimal damage to the facade, (lashings and roof structures. However, the landscaping was basically wiped out, all of the elevators had water damage and were not working and will require extensive repairs. The air conditioning equipment had water damage in over 40% of the units, replacement parts are scarce and require lead-times of up to six months to order. We are currently assessing whether we will need to replace the entire AC equipment in the Residences. The "chillers" or AC equipment for the Suites were substantially damaged and will need to be replaced which will take time. Adding to these problems is the water penetration or "wicking" that occurred under the doors and windows in almost 90% of our units. This will require extensive replacement of sheet rock, mold remediation, rebuilding and decorating. Of course, power was out on the entire Island and our back-up generators initially were not operating. While it took several days, we are pleased to report that our generators are working now. However, these generators were meant to be standby or back up units and were never intended to run 24/7 for many months. We therefore already placed an order for one new generator and will be purchasing another generator shortly in order to run the club independently of the Virgin Island Water and Power Authority (WAPA.) We