Caribbean residents fend off looters after Irma; Branson urges ‘Marshall Plan’
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, (Reuters) - Food shortages and looting on Caribbean islands hammered by Hurricane Irma sparked growing criticism of the government response, prompting British billionaire Richard Branson to call for a “Marshall plan” to help the region recover.
Irma ripped through the tiny easterly Leeward Islands last week as one of the Atlantic’s strongest ever storms, killing two dozen people, uprooting trees, tearing down power cables and severely damaging the homes of poor locals and the global jet-set alike.
Across the whole of the Caribbean, Irma killed nearly 40 people and devastated basic services, tearing cracks in law and order. Looting erupted on some Caribbean islands where residents and tourists were stranded with little food, shelter or drinking water.
Jenn Manes, who writes a blog on U.S. Virgin Island St. John, detailed a list of robberies and breakins on the island after Irma struck, saying she had to install a bar on the inside of her door to keep out would-be burglars. (http://newsofstjohn.com/)
“This is not St. John anymore. I’m not sure what it is. What I do know is that I am scared. My friends are scared. And we don’t know what to do,” she wrote.
Despite sending reinforcements and ships to deliver help, France, Britain and the Netherlands have been criticized for not doing enough for the islands that they oversee.
Britain’s Defence Minister Michael Fallon at the weekend said his government’s effort was “as good as anybody else’s.”
The Dutch government on Sunday described the situation as “fragile” on its half of the island of St. Martin, where an undisclosed number of arrests of looters were made after Irma damaged or destroyed 70 percent of the local housing stock.
Alex Martinez, a 31year-old American trapped on the Dutch part of St. Martin by Irma, said looters tried to raid his neardeserted hotel before he and others chased them off. “We had to fend for ourselves,” he told Reuters.
Struggling to get answers about loved-ones, many people resorted to sharing information and making pleas on a Facebook page set up to help people on St. Martin.
Dutch King WillemAlexander and Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk yesteday visited St. Martin, reviewing the damage done to the battered island with local leaders. French President Emmanuel Macron was expected in the Caribbean on Tuesday.
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