Death toll rises as Hurricane Irma leaves islands devastated

KEY WEST: Hurricane Irma has killed at least 10 people and injured 23 in French Caribbean island territories as the Category 5 storm roared over the Caribbean

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the death toll in Saintmartin and Saint-barthelemy could rise because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands.

“It’s a tragedy, we’ll need to rebuild both islands,” he said. “Most of the schools have been destroyed.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the hurricane had caused “huge damage” to St Martin, which is divided between France and Holland, devastating its airport and port and leaving the Dutch part of the Caribbean island unreachable.

“Alas, the island is not reachable at this point because of the huge damage to the airport and the harbour,” Mr Rutte told reporters.

He added there were no reports of deaths on the Dutch side so far, while no one had been killed on the Dutch islands of St Eustatius and Saba as the powerful and rare Category Five storm roared through on Wednesday.

Photos and video circulating on social media showed major damage to the airport in Philipsburg and the coastal village of Marigot heavily flooded. France sent emergency food and water there and to St. Bart’s, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out electricity.

At least 10 people are known to have died so far, with one death on Anguilla and nine on the French side of St Martin. Rutte said the priority now was to get the airport in the southern Dutch part of the island up and running again, to enable aid to be brought in. After holding crisis talks with his top cabinet ministers, Mr Rutte confirmed “there is no power” on St Martin and the island’s “infrastructure is badly damaged.” Irma also blacked out much of Puerto Rico, raking the US territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea, and it headed early Thursday toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti. To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm’s record 185km/h/h (298km/h/h) winds earlier Wednesday, while people in Florida rushed to get ready for a possible direct hit on the Miami area. Communications were difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.

Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island early Wednesday and about 60 per cent of its roughly 1,400 res- idents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told The Associated Press. “It is just really a horrendous situation,” Mr Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane trip to the neighbouring island. He said roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years. A 2-yearold child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, he said.

On St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a boarded-up basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside. They emerged to find the lush island in tatters. Many of their neighbours’ homes were damaged and once-dense vegetation was largely gone.

“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St. Thomas is that it was so green. And it’s gone,” Strickling said. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.” By early Thursday, the centre of the storm was about 95 miles (155 kilometres) north of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and was moving west-northwest near 17kmkm/h (28kmkm/h).

More than half the island of Puerto Rico was without power, leaving 900,000 in the dark and nearly 50,000 without water, the US territory’s emergency management agency said in the midst of the storm. Fourteen hospitals were using generators after losing power, and trees and light poles were strewn across roads. Puerto Rico’s public power company warned before the storm hit that some areas could be left without power from four to six months because its staff has been reduced and its infrastructure weakened by the island’s decade-long economic slump. State maintenance worker Juan Tosado said he was without power for three months after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. “I expect the same from this storm. It’s going to be bad,” he said.

President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to remove debris and give other services that will largely be paid for by the US government. The storm is expected to hit Florida sometime Sunday, and Gov. Rick Scott said he planned to activate 7,000 National Guard soldiers by Friday. He warned that Irma is “bigger, faster and stronger” than Hurricane Andrew.

At least 10 people are known to have died so far, with one death on Anguilla and nine on the French side of St Martin