Looters strike on St Martin after devastation:

“FOR pity’s sake, do something,” Estelle Kalton begged the police. “They’re looting the shops.”

A crime wave on the Franco-Dutch Caribbean holiday island of St Martin, five days after hurricane Irma ripped through, has everyone on edge.

It is only by making a scene on the steps of a makeshift security centre set up in Marigot, the main town on the French side of the island, that Kalton is able to confront officials.

She received an angry response to her charges of looting. “We know,” a police officer replied.

Minutes earlier, France’s Minister for Overseas Territories Annick Girardin, had walked down the same steps after assuring reporters that there was now security on the island.

But officials and people in the streets seem to have different definitions of security and criticism of the state’s response to the disaster is mounting on the island and in Paris.

“Police saw people trying to loot our store,” Kalton’s 57-year-old husband, Philippe, said.

“Sometimes they’re just 50m away, but they don’t do anything. They told me that people’s security is the priority and that the rest is only material, that it’s not important.”

Exhausted and angry, the Kaltons – who lost their villa to Irma – are watching over their two clothing shops as much as they can, and have asked a neighbour to do the same.

During the most recent break-in attempt, the neighbour scared away the looters with a machete.

“They said to him, ‘if you stay here we’ll come back, we’ll shoot you and take what we want’,” Philippe Kalton said, grim-faced.

Regional police chief Jean-Marc Descoux said about 500-600 delinquents were probably responsible for most of the looting, taking advantage of the devastation for personal profit.

Paris is battling accusations it was underprepared for the devastation in its Caribbean territories.

Fourteen people have been killed on the island, 10 on the French side and four on the Dutch, and many homes destroyed.

Along with about 85 tons of food, one million litres of water and 2 200kg of medicine, about 1 500 rescue workers, troops and security forces are on the ground on St Martin, a number set to rise shortly to 2 000. But for many residents, it is not enough.

On the Dutch side of the island, too, there are complaints of looting and criticism of the official response.

“They reacted far too late,” Kitty Algra, one of the first group of 55 Dutch tourists evacuated on a military flight to Curacao, said.

“Immediately after the storm, people were walking around with baseball bats. That was more disappointing than the hurricane.”