Hurricane Irma flattens Caribbean islands
MARIGOT (AFP) — Hurricane Irma sowed a trail of deadly devastation through the Caribbean on Wednesday, reducing to rubble the tropical islands of Barbuda and St. Martin and claiming at least eight lives.
One of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, the dangerous Category Five hurricane was churning off the north coast of Puerto Rico last night, on a potential collision course with south Florida where at-risk areas were evacuated.
The French part of St. Martin — a pristine resort known for its vibrant nightlife — suffered the storm’s full fury: at least seven people died and 95 percent of dwellings were decimated, officials said.
“It’s an enormous destruction. Ninety-five percent of the island is destroyed,” top local official Daniel Gibbs said in a radio interview. “I’m in shock. It’s frightening.”
Guadeloupe prefect Eric Maire called the situation in St. Martin “dramatic,” saying the island — which is divided between the Netherlands and France — was without drinking water or electricity, and warning the death toll was almost certain to rise.
French President Emmanuel Macron earlier warned the final toll would be “harsh and cruel.”
To the southeast, Barbuda, part of the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, suffered “absolute devastation” with 95 percent of properties damaged, and up to 30 percent demolished, according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
“Barbuda now is literally a rubble,” Browne said. One person is known to have died on the island of 1,600 residents, apparently a child whose family was trying to get to safer ground.
Irma was packing maximum sustained winds of up to 295 kilometer per hour as it followed a projected path that would see it hit the northern edges of the Dominican Republic and Haiti today, continuing past eastern Cuba before veering north for Florida.
As of 0000 GMT, the eye of the storm was just north of Puerto Rico and the hurricane was moving west-northwest at 26 kilometers per hour.
More than half of Puerto Rico’s population of three million is without power, with rivers breaking their banks in the center and north of the island where Gov. Ricardo Rossello activated the National Guard and opened storm shelters sufficient to house up to 62,000 people.
Blanca Santiago, who works in a beachside hotel in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan, described the howl of the wind whipping the coastline: “It was as if there were ghosts inside my home.”
US President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico as well as the US Virgin Islands and Florida where he said the outlook was “not good.”
Trump spoke by telephone with the governors of all three areas to assure them of the federal government’s support.
In Cuba, a state of alert was declared in several eastern and central provinces, with at-risk residents advised to move in with relatives or reach government shelters.
Haiti’s northern coast was on hurricane alert, although in the town of Cap-Haitien residents appeared mostly unaware of the impending storm.
“It’s thanks to word of mouth that we always learn about these things,” said Josue Rosse, as he crouched next to a tree trunk that he was digging out to make a boat.
“We live on the edge of the sea but no one in authority has come to tell us what’s what.”