Uprooted trees, roofs torn off and seven-metre waves as Irma invades Cuba’s capital
This is a storm of enormous power, and I ask everyone in the storm’s path to heed all instructions DONALD TRUMP
Parts of Cuba are under water after Hurricane Irma ploughed into the island’s north coast.
People walked through ankle-deep water in Caibarien, a fishing town where streets were flooded and covered in seaweed. Elsewhere, winds of 256kph uprooted trees and utility poles, tore roofs from houses and unleashed waves of up to seven metres high.
It was the first time the eye of a Category 5 storm had made landfall in Cuba since 1932, state media said, and the island’s Communist government ordered the removal of more than a million people from the storm’s path.
Irma made landfall on the island’s Camaguey archipelago on Friday. Close to a million people, including about 4,000 from the capital, Havana, left their homes to stay with relatives or in shelters as the electricity supply was cut as a precautionary measure.
“Oh God, this is going to destroy the town,” said a woman who identified herself only as Francis, 19. “The water was already at the corner near my house. By now it will be full of water,” she said.
Ambulances and firefighters patrolled streets littered with bits of roofs, power lines and tree branches blown down by strong winds. In one park, the wind tore up benches that had been screwed down into concrete. Radio stations issued constant messages warning people not to leave their homes while the hurricane passed through. Yet some still came out into the streets on bicycles to check on their friends and relatives.
Ramon Cobas, 72, and his wife Rosa, 64, sheltered six relatives in their house, one of the sturdiest buildings in the town.
Fragments of glass from other buildings struck the house as they huddled inside.
“These winds are stronger than those of Kate,” said Mrs Cobas, referring to the devastation wrought in 1985 by Hurricane Kate. “I’m afraid even this house will fall down. And I am afraid for the neighbours.”
Residents were also fearful about flooding, because the town has no storm drains in its streets.
A large part of the centre and east of the island was without power and although Havana, with its two million population, was forecast to receive just the tail-end of Irma, civil defence authorities placed it and two neighbouring provinces on maximum flood alert.
Enormous waves lashed the Malecon, the capital’s emblematic seafront, causing seawaters to wash about 250 metres into the city.
Leonor Herrera, 64, said the last time she saw waves in the city was during Hurricane Wilma in 2005, when the water “was up to our knees”. “At the moment, it’s not so high, but there’s times when it rises and you must run inside,” she said.
Tourism minister Alexis Trujillo said authorities had moved 10,000 foreign tourists from all the hotels on the coast around Havana.
There were no confirmed casualties in Cuba, but the hurricane killed at least 25 people on its path across the Caribbean.
Irma was expected to strike the Florida Keys early yesterday before moving up the mainland peninsula.
In Florida, 6.3 million people, about a third of the state’s population, face evacuation orders, including president Donald Trump’s waterfront Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
“This is a storm of enormous destructive power, and I ask everyone in the storm’s path to heed ALL instructions from government officials,” Mr Trump said on Twitter.
The bill for loss and damage could hit US$120 billion (Dh441bn) in the United States and the Caribbean, according to Enki Research, a data modelling company.
Before moving into Cuba, Irma had caused havoc in lush Caribbean resorts such as St Martin, St Barts, St Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla.
Many of Irma’s victims fled their battered islands on ferries and fishing boats for fear Hurricane Jose would destroy or drench anything Irma left untouched, but the second storm veered away before doing much more damage.
On the Dutch side of St Martin (known as St Maarten), an island divided between French and Dutch control, an estimated 70 per cent of the homes were destroyed by Irma, according to the Dutch government. Prime minister William Marlin said about 1,600 tourists had been relocated and efforts were being made to move 1,200 more. Twenty-eight of the island’s police officers lost their homes.
There was widespread looting and robbery on St Martin after Hurricane Irma but the Dutch navy said the security situation had improved thanks to patrols by marines and police flown to the island to help the local force.
Mr Marlin said many countries and people have offered help to St Martin, but authorities were still trying to determine the extent of damage to the island. The US state department helped more than 500 Americans fly out of St Martin, starting with those in need of urgent medical care.