225MPH MONSTER
UK holidaymakers flee for their lives as killer Hurricane Irma pulverises paradise
A MONSTER hurricane barrelled through the Caribbean yesterday, wreaking devastation on several luxury holiday islands.
Thousands of British holidaymakers found themselves in the path of ‘superstorm’ Hurricane Irma, the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean with sustained wind speeds of 185mph and gusts of 225mph.
The celebrity hotspot of St Barts plus Saint Martin, Barbuda and Antigua were all struck yesterday – with at least two people killed, government buildings destroyed, boats in harbours left trashed and roads turned into roaring rivers.
President Emmanuel Macron warned the impact on the French territories of Saint Martin – where Donald Trump owns a £21.5million mansion – and St Barts would be ‘hard and cruel’ and there would be ‘considerable’ casualties and damage.
States of emergency have been declared in Florida – where people were last night told to start evacuating – and in Puerto Rico as the storm moves west. It is due to hit the Florida Keys by Sunday.
Officials in the Leeward Islands cut power to preserve its grid and urged residents to seek shelter, in a statement that ended with ‘may God protect us all’.
The Foreign Office advised Britons stranded abroad to ‘follow the advice of the local authorities and any evacuation orders’. On Tuesday, British Airways sent an emergency aircraft to collect 326 customers from Antigua, while Virgin Atlantic also sent a rescue flight.
Yesterday, however, both Antigua and St Kitts airports had been forced to close and BA said no further relief flights were planned.
Thomas Cook said it had 4,803 customers in Cuba and 1,501 in the Dominican Republic. Carnival Cruises said five ships were sailing on ‘modified itineraries’ to maintain a safe distance from the storm.
Two American tourists in Guadeloupe, Loren Ann Mayo and Rachel Scharett, told CNN they were weathering the storm in their hotel room’s bathroom.
Following a loud cracking noise, Miss Mayo said: ‘The balcony snapped and is now hanging on by one little piece of wire.’
Billionaire Sir Richard Branson said he was ‘hiding in his concrete wine cellar’ as Irma battered his £60million Necker Island retreat. The Virgin mogul, 67, wrote on his blog: ‘We are expecting to retreat to a concrete wine cellar under the Great House. Knowing our wonderful team as I do, I suspect there will be little wine left in the cellar when we all emerge.
‘We have just experienced a night of howling wind and rain as Hurricane Irma edges ever closer towards us on Necker and the British Virgin Islands.
‘The strength of the hurricane is unheard of. The atmosphere is eerie but beautiful.’
The fire station in St Barts was left under 3ft of water and no rescue vehicles were able to leave.
Michel Magras, a senator on the island, said: ‘I am shocked by the monster that covers us... The island is devastated. It is apocalyptic, a lot of damage, many roofs destroyed.’
In Saint Martin, the government headquarters were partially destroyed and the island was left in a total blackout.
French minister for overseas territories Annick Girardin expressed fear ‘for a certain number of our compatriots who unfortunately didn’t want to listen to the protection measures and go to more secure sites’. She added: ‘We’re preparing for the worst.’
In Saint Martin, videos posted on social media showed rivers of water in the roads and upturned yachts in the bay. To make matters worse for those across the region, a second storm following in the path of Irma was last night predicted to be upgraded to hurricane status.
Tropical storm Jose is closely following the path of Irma across the Caribbean – with a third tropical storm behind that.
In Anguilla, Alison Strand, originally from Staffordshire, said she and her family had spent several hours fortifying their home on the coast. ‘We lost power about two minutes ago ’ she told the BBC.
‘You can hear the wind picking up, there’s a lot of stuff flying about in the air – it’s quite dangerous out there now.’
Alex Woolfall, a PR worker from London, live-tweeted his experience inside a concrete stairwell in Saint Martin as he waited for the storm to pass. He wrote of being ‘pretty terrified’ and urged people to ‘please pray for me’, before adding: ‘Power out and noise now apocalyptic. This is like a movie I never want to see.
‘Still thunderous sonic boom noises outside & boiling in stairwell. Can feel scream of things being hurled against building.’
Irma is a Category 5 storm – the most powerful category on the Saffir-Simpson scale – and is so strong it is showing up on seismographs, which are designed to measure earthquakes. Last week’s Hurricane Harvey, which devastated parts of Texas, was a Category 4 storm when it hit land.
‘A night of howling wind and rain’ ‘We’re preparing for the worst’