Hurricane Irma batters Caribbean
MARIGOT: Monster Hurricane Irma slammed into the French Caribbean islands on Wednesday after making landfall in Barbuda, packing ferocious winds and causing major flooding in low-lying areas.
As the rare Category Five storm barrelled its way across the Caribbean, it brought gusting winds of up to 294 kilometres per hour), weather experts said.
After making landfall just before 0600 GMT in Barbuda, part of the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, the hurricane swept on to French-run Saint Barthelemy, also known as St Barts, and Saint Martin, an island divided between France and the Netherlands.
The French weather office said Irma was “a historic hurricane (with) an unprecedented intensity over the Atlantic,” with a French minister saying it had already “caused major damage” across the two territories.
Coastal areas were being “battered extremely violently” by the sea, with the weather office logging winds of 244 kph before its monitoring equipment was destroyed by the hurricane.
With the islands on maximum alert ahead of the arrival of the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, France had raised the alarm over the fate of some 7,000 people who refused to seek shelter. France’s minister for overseas territories said the islanders had likely underestimated the power of the storm. Dutch national broadcaster NOS also reported “enormous damage” on Saint Martin, with residents speaking of widespread destruction.
“Everything around the house is gone. All the bushes have disappeared,” teacher Astrid Schrage told RTL television. “It was very quiet in the eye of the storm, but very scary.”
Saba Island and St Eustatius, two other Dutch-run territories to the south, were also hit.
The massive hurricane, which is beating a path northwest, was also expected to hit the larger French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
On Tuesday, as the storm was still over the Atlantic, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said it was the strongest hurricane ever recorded over that part of the ocean.
With forecasters warning of catastrophe, including surges of up to 20 feet above normal tide levels, people evacuated tourist areas, stocked up on provisions, and packed into shelters across an area stretching as far north as Florida.