European leaders visit devastation of Irma
Dutch King Willem-Alexander calls the aftermath the worst he has ever seen in his life
France’s president and the Dutch king visited Caribbean territories on Tuesday that have been hammered by hurricane Irma, trying to quell accusations by residents that European governments were unprepared, slow to react and sometimes even racist in their responses to the devastation.
The Dutch Red Cross said there were still more than 200 people listed as missing on St. Maarten, but with communications still extremely spotty a week after the storm hit, it wasn’t immediately clear how many were simply without cell service and unable to let friends and family know they had survived. More than 90 per cent of buildings on the Dutch side of the island were damaged, and a third of the buildings were destroyed, the agency said, adding they would use drones to better assess the damage.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people across the island shared by Dutch St. Maarten and French St. Martin were trying to rebuild the lives they had before the hurricane hit.
French President Emmanuel Macron flew into Guadeloupe and was heading to St. Martin to meet with residents. His plane brought water, food, medicine and emergency equipment, doctors and recovery experts to an island demolished by the Category 5 hurricane.
Macron said 11 people were killed in St. Martin, while four more people died on the Dutch side of the island, bringing the death toll in the Caribbean to at least 37.
Adding to the stress of lack of food and shelter were reports of widespread looting by armed gangs.
Across the island, cars lay tossed upside down at 90-degree angles and on top of other cars. Large boats leaned sideways on dry land.
Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who arrived on Monday, said the scenes of devastation he witnessed on St. Maarten in the were the worst he had ever seen.
“I’ve never experienced anything like this before and I’ve seen a lot of natural disasters in my life. I’ve seen a lot of war zones in my life, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Willem-Alexander said on the Dutch national network NOS.
Still, he said he was encouraged to see residents already working together to rebuild the shattered capital, Philipsburg.
He was scheduled to fly later Tuesday to the nearby Dutch islands of Saba and St. Eustatius, which also were hit, but suffered less damage than St. Maarten.