TRAIL OF DEATH, DESTRUCTION
Powerful Atlantic storm to arrive in Florida tomorrow
SAN JUAN
HGENERAL BIPIN RAWAT, Indian army chief
URRICANE Irma killed eight people on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and left Barbuda devastated yesterday as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida.
Television footage of the Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin showed a damaged marina with boats tossed into piles, submerged streets and flooded homes. Power was knocked out on Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy and in parts of the United States territory of Puerto Rico.
“It is an enormous disaster, 95 per cent of the island is destroyed. I am in shock,” Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council on Saint Martin, told Radio Caribbean International.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said eight people were killed and the toll was likely to rise.
“We did not have the time yet to explore all the shores,” Collomb told Franceinfo radio, adding that 23 people were also injured.
In all, at least 10 people were killed by Irma on four islands.
Irma caused “enormous damage” to the Dutch side of Saint Martin, called Sint Maarten, the Dutch Royal Navy said.
The navy tweeted images gathered by helicopter of damaged houses, hotels and boats. The airport was unreachable, it said.
The hurricane was on track to reach Florida tomorrow or the day after.
The eye of Irma was moving west-northwest off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic yesterday,the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The island of Barbuda is a scene of “total carnage” and the tiny two-island nation will seek international assistance, said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda.
Browne said one person was killed on Barbuda. A surfer was also reported killed on Barbados.
Irma hit Puerto Rico yesterday, buffeting its capital here with rain and wind that scattered tree limbs across roadways.
The NHC said it was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the five most forceful storms to hit the Atlantic basin in 82 years.
Irma’s precise course remained uncertain but it was likely to be downgraded to a Category 4 storm by the time it makes landfall in Florida, the NHC said.
It has become a little less organised over the past few hours, but the threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida were increasing, it said. Reuters