Storm in a pint glass
Beer and bubs are an irresponsible mix, Facebook users have told Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after he posted a picture of himself holding his granddaughter (above) with a beer in hand at an AFL final at the weekend. “I think it’s the craziness of social media when you see things like that,” Turnbull told Eddie McGuire on Triple M radio yesterday. “As long as you’re comfortable in your own skin and you’re just being yourself, being natural, that’s all you can do.” Other federal MPs queued up to defend the Prime Minister and label the outcry as a beat up. Opposition leader Bill Shorten tweeted: “I’ve found something Malcolm & I can agree on. This is rubbish. Let him be a grandpa.”
The storm-stricken Caribbean took on the feel of a sprawling disaster zone yesterday, with Cuban first responders using inflatable rafts to navigate flooded streets as panicked families sent up social-media pleas in search of loved ones on hard-hit islands farther east.
On St John in the US Virgin Islands, “people there are roaming like zombies”, said Stacey Alvarado, a bar owner who managed to leave for the mainland. Her husband, who is still there, told her that residents and tourists are in shock. “They don’t know what to do. The island was wiped out. It’s like The Walking Dead down there.”
Other islanders sent social media messages pleading for help, decrying looting and a series of armed burglaries.
“We need help,” wrote St John blogger Jenn Manes. “We need the United States Government to step up. We need military. We need security.”
In Cuba, where the Government said it had evacuated one million residents, Hurricane Irma’s driving winds and pelting rains sent roofs flying, knocked over trees, wrecked buildings and caused large-scale flooding along the northern coast. Officials in Havana warned of flooding that would last through until today. Many buildings have collapsed.
As streets turned into rivers, authorities took to inflatable rafts to access coastal neighbourhoods. Some Cubans had even sought shelter in caves.
The brutal storm struck Cuba along a coast studded with resorts that are among the pillars of the island’s econ- omy. Authorities warned of heavy damage from the storm, which has killed at least 25 people across the Caribbean.
Richard Paterson, the CARE organisation’s representative in Cuba, said power had been turned off throughout the country.
European governments came under fire as critics accused them of being slow to respond to crises in their Caribbean territories, where massive damage left thousands homeless as looting broke out in the streets. Stacey Alvarado
The French Government announced that President Emmanuel Macron would travel to St Martin, an island split between France and the Netherlands, tomorrow. The French have already deployed more than 1000 personnel to the Caribbean region in an aid-and-relief effort.
The evacuation of US citizens from the Dutch side resumed yesterday, according to the State Department, after being suspended in anticipation of Hurricane Jose, which later veered off to the north.
Residents in the devastated British Virgin Islands used Facebook in frantic calls for help. One user, Lanein Blanchette, echoed many others still looking for word from relatives and friends. “There is absolutely no news about East End on any of these pages,” she wrote. “I’ve posted over ten times asking for assistance as to whether anyone has seen my uncle Kingston ‘Iman’ Eddy and not one person has replied.”
At the same time, dramatic tales of escape began to emerge.
Lauren Boquette, a 48-year-old restaurant manager on St John, said his