Hurricane damage leaves St. Martin ‘unreachable’
POINTE-À-PITRE — Hurricane Irma has caused “huge damage” to St. Martin, devastating its airport and port and leaving the Dutch part of the Caribbean island unreachable, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday.
“Alas, the island is not reachable at this point because of the huge damage to the airport and the harbor,” Mr. Rutte told reporters, though he added there were no reports of deaths on the Dutch side so far. French authorities say at least nine lives have been lost on the French side.
The French part of the Caribbean island St. Martin is “95% destroyed” after hurricane Irma tore through the region, top local off icial Daniel Gibbs said late Wednesday.
“It’s an enormous catastrophe. Ninety- five percent of the island is destroyed. I’m in shock. It’s frightening,” said Mr. Gibbs, a former French lawmaker, speaking on Radio Caribbean International.
The island is in need of emergency assistance, he said. “I have sick people to evacuate, I have a population to evacuate because I don’t know where I can shelter them,” he said.
At least six people have been killed in the French part of St. Martin, Guadeloupe prefect Eric Maire said.
Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, cut a deadly swath through a string of small Caribbean islands on Wednesday.
The French minister for overseas affairs, Annick Girardin, was to fly to Guadeloupe late Wednesday with emergency teams and supplies to assess the situation, the ministry said.
“It’s too soon for casualty figures ( but) I can already tell you the toll will be harsh and cruel,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, adding that he expected damage on St. Barts and St. Martin to be “considerable.”
St. Martin (“Sint Maarten” in Dutch), located south of the island of Anguilla, is divided between the Netherlands and France.
St. Barts (“Saint Barthelemy” in French), which lies to the southeast of St. Martin, is administered with the status of a French collectivity, as is the French part of St. Martin.
‘TOTAL CARNAGE’
The Caribbean island of Barbuda is a scene of “total carnage” after the passage of hurricane Irma and the tiny two-island nation will be seeking assistance from the international community to rebuild, its prime minister said on Thursday. Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told the BBC that about half of Barbuda’s population of some 1,800 were homeless while nine out of 10 buildings had suffered some level of devastation, many of them total destruction.
“We flew into Barbuda only to see total carnage. It was easily one of the most emotionally painful experiences that I have had,” Mr. Browne said in an interview on BBC Radio Four.
“Approximately 50% of them (residents of Barbuda) are literally homeless at this time. They are bunking together, we are trying to get ... relief supplies to them first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, adding that it would take months or years to restore some level of normalcy to the island.