Irma batters more islands on way to Florida
Storm could prove costliest in US history
CAIBARIEN: Hurricane Irma battered the Turks and Caicos Islands yesterday and Cuba evacuated tourists from beachside resorts as the fearsome storm continued a rampage through the Caribbean that has killed at least 11 people.
Waves as high as 6 meters were expected in the Turks and Caicos. Communications went down as the storm slammed into the islands, and the extent of the devastation was unclear.
The first hurricane warnings were issued for southern Florida as the state braced for what could be a catastrophic hit. Following in Irma’s wake was Hurricane Jose, with some of the islands hit hardest by Irma in its expected path.
Irma weakened from a Category 5 storm to Category 4 yesterday morning with maximum sustained winds near 250kph, but it remained a powerful hurricane.
Irma rolled past the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday and spun along the northern coast of Cuba yesterday morning. Thousands of tourists were evacuated from low-lying keys off the Cuban coast on Thursday in anticipation of storm surges. Buses loaded with tourists began streaming out of Santa Maria, Cayo Coco, Cayo Guillermo and other keys dotted with allinclusive resorts.
All residents of the area were under mandatory evacuation orders from the Cuban government, which was moving tens of thousands of people from vulnerable coastline.
French, British and Dutch military authorities rushed aid to a devastated string of Caribbean islands where at least 11 people were dead and thousands homeless. Warships and planes were sent with food, water and troops after the hurricane smashed homes, schools and roads, laying waste to some of the world’s most beautiful and exclusive tourist destinations.
The first islands hit by the storm were scenes of terrible destruction.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Thursday that four people were confirmed dead and about 50 injured on the French side of St Martin, an island split between Dutch and French control, where homes were splintered and road signs scattered by the fierce winds. The cafes and clothing shops of the picturesque seaside village of Marigot were submerged in brown floodwaters.
At least four people were killed in the US Virgin Islands, and officials said they expected to find more bodies. Authorities described the damage as catastrophic and said crews were struggling to reopen roads and restore power.
Three more deaths were reported on the British island of Anguilla, as well as Barbuda and the Dutch side of St Martin.
The hospital on St Thomas was destroyed and dozens of patients were being evacuated to St Croix and Puerto Rico by the US Coast Guard. Local officials said a US Navy hospital ship was en route to care for unknown numbers of injured and two Air Force C-130s transport planes were bringing in food and water.
Power lines and towers were toppled, leaves were stripped off plants and trees, a water and sewage treatment plants was heavily damaged and the harbor was in ruins, along with hundreds of homes and dozens of businesses. Governor Kenneth Mapp imposed a 6pm curfew.
The primary focus for now is “making sure people have meals, water and shelter”, Mr Mapp said. “An event of this magnitude is very chilling.”
Irma also slammed the French island of St Barts, tearing off roofs and knocking out electricity.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said 100,000 food rations were sent to St Barts and St Martin, the equivalent of four days of supplies.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the storm “caused wide-scale destruction of infrastructure, houses and businesses”.
“There is no power, no gasoline, no running water. Houses are under water, cars are floating through the streets, inhabitants are sitting in the dark in ruined houses and are cut off from the outside world,” he said.
Big waves smashed a dozen homes into rubble in the Dominican fishing community of Nagua, but work crews said all the residents had left before the storm. Officials said 11,200 people in all had evacuated vulnerable areas, while 55,000 soldiers had been deployed to help the cleanup.
In Haiti, two people were injured by a falling tree, a national roadway was blocked by debris and roofs were torn from houses along the northern coast but there were no immediate reports of deaths. Officials warned that could change as Irma continued to lash Haiti, where deforested hillsides are prone to devastating mudslides that have wiped out entire neighborhoods of precariously built homes in flood zones.
“We are vulnerable. We don’t have any equipment to help the population,” Josue Alusma, mayor of the northern city of Port de Paix, said on Radio Zenith FM.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he would go to the islands as soon as the weather permits it.
On Barbuda, nearly every building was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island early on Wednesday. About 60% of its roughly 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.
Hundreds of kilometres to the west, Florida prepared for Irma’s wrath, with forecasters warning the storm could slam headlong into the Miami metropolitan area of 6 million people, punish the entire length of the state’s Atlantic coast and move into Georgia and South Carolina.
More than half a million people in Miami-Dade County were ordered to leave as Irma closed in.
Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, said Irma could easily prove to be the costliest storm in US history.
“Take it seriously, because this is the real deal,” said Maj Jeremy DeHart, a US Air Force Reserve weather officer.
Farther out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Jose strengthened into a Category 3 storm with 195kph winds and posed a potential threat for today to some of the same islands ravaged by Irma.
Irma, the most potent Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever recorded, appears increasingly likely to rip into heavily populated South Florida tomorrow after sweeping Cuba’s northern coast today.