Irma slams islands, heads for Florida
95% of buildings on Barbuda damaged
SAN JUAN: Hurricane Irma has killed at least eight people and injured 23 in French Caribbean island territories as the dangerous Category 5 storm roared over the Caribbean, France’s interior minister said yesterday.
Speaking on French radio, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the death toll in St Martin and St Barthelemy could be higher because rescue teams have yet to finish their inspection of the islands.
“The reconnaissance will really start at daybreak,” Mr Collomb said.
Irma blacked out much of Puerto Rico, raking the US territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea, and it headed yesterday toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm’s record 298kph winds earlier on Wednesday, while people in Florida rushed to get ready for a possible direct hit on the Miami area.
Communications were difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.
Nearly every building in Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island early on Wednesday and about 60% of its roughly 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.
“It is just really a horrendous situation,” Mr Browne said.
He said roads and telecom systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years. A two-year-old child was killed as a family tried to flee their home during the storm, Mr Browne said,
On St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and one-year-old daughter in a boarded-up basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside. They emerged to find the lush island in tatters. Many of their neighbours’ homes were damaged and once-dense vegetation was largely gone.
“There are no leaves. It is crazy. One of the things we loved about St Thomas is that it was so green. And it’s gone,” Ms Strickling said. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.”
Significant damage was also reported on St Martin, an island split between French and Dutch control. Photos and video circulating on social media showed major damage to the airport in Philipsburg and the coastal village of Marigot heavily flooded. France sent emergency food and water there and to the French island of St Bart’s, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out electricity.
More than half of Puerto Rico was without power, leaving 900,000 in the dark and nearly 50,000 without water, the US territory’s emergency management agency said in the midst of the storm. Fourteen hospitals were using generators after losing power, and trees and light poles were strewn across roads.
Puerto Rico’s public power company warned before the storm hit that some areas could be left without power from four to six months because its staff has been reduced and its infrastructure weakened by the island’s decade-long economic slump.
State maintenance worker Juan Tosado said he was without power for three months after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. “I expect the same from this storm. It’s going to be bad,” he said.
US President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other agencies to remove debris and give other services that will largely be paid for by the US government.
The US National Hurricane Center predicted Irma would remain at Category 4 or 5 for the next day or two as it was set to pass just to the north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti yesterday, to near the Turks & Caicos and parts of the Bahamas last night night and to skirt Cuba tonight and tomorrow. It will then likely head north toward Florida, which it is expected to hit sometime on Sunday.