Giant hurricane slams into Caribbean
Irma leaves islands ‘demolished’ on deadly path toward U.S. with 185-mph winds; 2 other storms may pose threats
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Irma lashed Puerto Rico with heavy rain and powerful winds Wednesday night, leaving nearly 900,000 people without power as authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands already devastated by the historic storm.
Florida rushed to prepare for a possible direct hit on the Miami area by the Category 5 storm with potentially catastrophic 185mph winds.
Nearly every building on the island of Barbuda was damaged when the eye of the storm passed almost directly overhead early Wednesday and about 60 percent of the island’s roughly 1,400 people were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.
“Either they were totally demolished or they would have lost their roof,”
Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane trip to the neighboring island. “It is just really a horrendous situation.”
He said roads and telecommunications systems were destroyed and recovery will take months, if not years. A 2-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, Browne told the AP.
As the storm moved west, it tore up the small islands in its path. On St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Laura Strickling spent 12 hours hunkered down with her husband and 1-year-old daughter in a basement apartment with no power as the storm raged outside. They emerged to find the lush island in tatters, with many of their neighbors’ homes damaged and the once-dense vegetation 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,” said Strickling. “It will take years for this community to get back on its feet.” St. Martin damages
Significant effects also were 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 rations there and to the French island of St. Bart’s, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out all electricity. Dutch marines who flew to St. Martin and two other Dutch islands hammered by Irma reported extensive damage but no deaths or injuries.
More than half the island of Puerto Rico was without power and nearly 50,000 without water, the U.S. territory’s emergency management agency said. Hospitals were using generators after losing power, and trees and light poles were strewn across roads.
The U.S. National Weather Service said Puerto Rico had not seen a hurricane of Irma’s magnitude since San Felipe in 1928, which killed a total of 2,748 people in Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico and Florida.
President Donald Trump approved an emergency declaration for the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. That means FEMA and other agencies can remove debris and give other services that will largely be paid for by the U.S. government.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Irma’s winds would fluctuate, but the storm would likely remain at Category 4 or 5 for the next day or two as it roared past the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, the Turks & Caicos and parts of the Bahamas. Evacuations from high-risk areas were ordered throughout the path of the storm.
By early Sunday, Irma is expected to hit Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott said he planned to activate 7,000 National Guard soldiers by Friday and warned that Irma is “bigger, faster and stronger” than Hurricane Andrew. Andrew pummeled South Florida 25 years ago and wiped out entire neighborhoods with ferocious winds.
Trump also declared an emergency in Florida, and authorities in the Bahamas said they were evacuating six southern islands.
Experts worried that Irma could rake the entire Florida east coast from Miami to Jacksonville and then head into Savannah, Georgia, and the Carolinas, striking highly populated and developed areas. Two other storms
Also Wednesday, Tropical Storm Katia formed in the Gulf off Mexico’s coast and rapidly became a hurricane. It had sustained winds of 75 mph, and Mexico’s government issued a hurricane watch for the coast of Veracruz state from Tuxpan to Laguna Verde.
Another storm farther east in the Atlantic became a hurricane Wednesday. Jose posed no immediate threat to land, but meteorologists warned that its path could change. Jose had winds of 75 mph and was strengthening.