Orlando Sentinel

French president, Dutch king visit devastated Caribbean,

- By Danica Coto, Nicolas Garriga and Sylvie Corbet Associated Press

PHILIPSBUR­G, St. Maarten — France’s president and the Dutch king visited Caribbean territorie­s Tuesday that were hammered by Hurricane Irma, bringing in muchneeded food, water and medical supplies amid accusation­s that European government­s had been unprepared and slow to react in their responses to the devastatio­n.

The visits came as residents tried to revive a sense of normalcy with small gestures like sharing radios and rescuing dogs amid the chaos and destructio­n wrought by the Category 5 hurricane.

The Dutch Red Cross said more than 200 people were still listed as missing on St. Maarten, but with communicat­ions spotty a week after the storm hit it wasn’t clear how many were simply without cell service and power and unable to let friends and family know they had survived. The organizati­on said 90 percent of buildings on the Dutch territory were damaged and a third destroyed as Irma roared across the island it shares with French St. Martin.

Yogesh Bodha, a 37-year-old jewelry store employee, said there was no response from European officials for two days, and that he hasn’t seen many changes since Dutch authoritie­s arrived on St. Maarten.

“They should’ve been more organized than they were,” he said. “We have not received any food or water. They say it’s on its way. Let’s see.”

For Liseth Echevarria, who works as a bartender in St. Maarten, offering whatever she could to family, strangers and abandoned pets was helping her cope — and those around her were doing the same.

The manager of a marina next door threw over a hose so that Echevarria and her husband, Lex Kools, 26, could have a semblance of an outdoor shower. He also offered them a temporary power connection from his generator so they could charge phones and listen to the sole radio station still broadcasti­ng.

“This is the only communicat­ion that St. Maarten has with the world right now,” Echevarria, 27, said.

French President Emmanuel Macron flew into Guadeloupe on Tuesday before heading to St. Martin, where he met with residents in debris-littered streets. He was accompanie­d by doctors and teams of experts who were there to help lead the recovery.

“The situation is very critical,” Macron said. “What I want to do is to have a very fast recovery, so we are trying to fix the situation regarding health, education, access to water, energy and telecom.”

Macron said 11 people were killed in St. Martin, while another four people died on the Dutch side of the island, bringing the death toll in the Caribbean to at least 37.

At a news conference in the Pointe-a-Pitre airport before departing for St. Martin, Macron said the government’s “top priority” was to help island residents return to normal life.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander, who arrived Monday in St. Maarten, said the scenes of devastatio­n he witnessed in the hurricane’s aftermath were the worst he had ever seen.

“I’ve never experience­d anything like this before, and I’ve seen a lot of natural disasters in my life. I’ve seen a lot of war zones in my life, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Willem-Alexander said on the Dutch national network NOS.

At Echevarria’s and Kools’ home on the island, the couple fed relatives and the girlfriend and two children of Echevarria’s cousin, all of whom were staying with them.

Near the front door, a large plastic table sagged under the weight of boxes of spaghetti and cookies, soup cans, chips, bags of almonds and macadamia nuts, and rice. Underneath were bottles of water.

The couple said they took the goods from a grocery store blown open during the storm. They said they had planned on buying the items, but no one was working at the store and they were running out of food and water. They looked at each other as they observed looting.

“Do we do this as well?” Kools recalled thinking. “Everybody was just running inside. It was chaos.”

The looting and reports of violence prompted the couple and their guests to run into their house as soon as they parked their car.

“I’m scared,” Echevarria said. “I know they’re breaking into homes at night.”

Dozens of people stood in line for hours Tuesday waiting for flights, some of which never materializ­ed.

“We’ve been here since 7 a.m.,” said Rosa Vanderpool, 52, an accountant who was trying to get her stepdaught­er and step granddaugh­ter on a flight to Curacao. “We only have two days of food left,” she said. “We don’t know if there are any planes. We don’t know anything.”

 ?? JOSE JIMENEZ/GETTY IMAGES ?? A man looks at what is left of his home in Cake Bay, St. Maarten, days after the Caribbean island sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Irma.
JOSE JIMENEZ/GETTY IMAGES A man looks at what is left of his home in Cake Bay, St. Maarten, days after the Caribbean island sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Irma.
 ?? CHRISTOPHE ENA/ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? French President Emmanuel Macron, center, shakes hands with residents on a visit to the islands of Saint Martin.
CHRISTOPHE ENA/ASSOCIATED PRESS French President Emmanuel Macron, center, shakes hands with residents on a visit to the islands of Saint Martin.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States