‘It is just really a horrendous situation’

IN THE United Kingdom, the Government said Irma inflicted “severe, and in places, critical” damage to the British overseas territory of Anguilla. Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan said the Caribbean island took the full force of the hurricane. He told lawmakers yesterday that the British Virgin Islands have also suffered “severe damage”.

Irma blacked out much of Puerto Rico, raking the U.S. territory with heavy wind and rain while staying just out to sea, and it headed early yesterday towards the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

To the east, authorities struggled to get aid to small Caribbean islands devastated by the storm’s record 185 mph (298 kph) winds. Communications were

difficult with areas hit by Irma, and information on damage trickled out.

MANY LEFT HOMELESS

Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane’s core crossed almost directly over the island

early Wednesday, and about 60 per cent of its roughly 1,400 residents was left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the Associated Press (AP).

“It is just really a horrendous situation,” Browne said after returning to Antigua from a plane

trip to the neighbouring island.

He said roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years. A two-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, Browne told the AP.

AP Rescue staff from the Municipal Emergency Management Agency investigate an empty flooded car during the passage of Hurricane Irma through the north-eastern part of the island in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, Wednesday.