Islanders clean up as toll mounts
UNITED STATES/CUBA: Hurricane Irma evacuees from the Florida Keys began returning to the storm-ravaged island chain yesterday to find homes ripped apart and businesses coated in seaweed amid a debris-strewn landscape where an estimated 25 per cent of all dwellings were destroyed.
The death toll from Irma, previously ranked as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record and the second major hurricane to strike the US mainland this season, climbed to more than five dozen, Of those, 43 were killed in the Caribbean, and at least 18 in the southeastern US. Some of those died from accidents during cleanup and repair efforts.
Twelve Irma-related fatalities were confirmed by Florida emergency management officials, while authorities in Georgia and South Carolina each reported three deaths from the storm and its immediate aftermath.
Destruction was widespread in the Keys, a resort archipelago stretching southwest from the tip of the Florida Peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico and connected by a single, narrow highway and a series of bridges and causeways along a nearly 160-kilometre route.
‘‘I don’t have a house. I don’t have a job. I have nothing,’’ said Mercedes Lopez, 50, whose family fled north from the Florida Keys town of Marathon last Saturday and rode out the storm at an Orlando hotel, only to learn their home was destroyed, along with the petrol station where he worked.
Initial damage assessments had found 25 per cent of homes in the Keys destroyed and 65 per cent with major damage, according to Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The islands were largely evacuated by the time Irma barrelled ashore on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane, packing sustained winds of up to 215kmh. Two days later, authorities began allowing re-entry to the islands of Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada for residents and business owners only. The extent of the devastation took many by surprise.
‘‘I expected some fence lines to be down and some debris,’’ said Dr Orlando Morejon, 51, a trauma surgeon from Miami as he hacked away at a tree blocking his Islamorada driveway. ‘‘We were not expecting to find someone else’s sailboat in our backyard.’’
Authorities said they were barring re-entry to the remainder of the Keys to allow more time to restore electricity, water, fuel supplies and medical services. US officials have said some 10,000 residents of the Keys stayed put when the storm hit and may ultimately need to be evacuated.
Some 5.8 million homes and businesses were still without power in Florida and nearby states, down from a peak of about 7.4 million on Tuesday. Florida’s largest utility, Florida Power & Light Co, said western parts of the state might be without electricity until September 22.
One of the chief deprivations endured by many Floridians in the storm’s aftermath is difficulty staying cool in the absence of air conditioning, ice, and even natural shade from trees knocked down or stripped bare of foliage.
While the damage across Florida was severe, it paled in scope to the devastation wrought by Irma in parts of the Caribbean, which accounted for the bulk of Irma’s fatalities.
The hurricane destroyed about one-third of the buildings on the Dutch-ruled portion of the eastern Caribbean island of St Martin, the Dutch Red Cross said yesterday.
In Cuba, coastal towns and cities from Baracoa in the east to west of the capital, Havana, residents picked through collapsed and damaged homes trying to salvage what they could. Furniture, appliances and other household items were stacked outside to dry out. At houses that had been flooded, Cubans shovelled mounds of mud that filled the air with the stench of raw sewage.
‘‘I have lived in this place since I was born, and I have never seen anything like this,’’ Oscar Rodriguez told independent Cuban news service 14ymedio as he paused from shovelling mud from every crevice of his home near the Malecon.
The government said restoring the power grid, dealing with water shortages and resuming the school year were its main priorities. Irma left 10 dead in Cuba in the 72 hours it rolled across the island’s northern coast.
Not only are wide areas of the country without electric power, but Cuba is experiencing shortages of water for drinking, cooking and bathing in Havana and the central and western provinces. The lack of water is raising concerns about health issues. Unicef said it was sending 3 million chlorine tablets to Cuba.
Granma, the newspaper of Cuba’s ruling Communist Party, reported that Irma-driven coastal flooding was perhaps the most severe the island had ever experienced.
Cuban state media reported that there had been severe damage to electrical plants, which are concentrated along the north coast.