PARADISE LOST IN CARIBBEAN
US aids mass evac of ravaged isles
Lush island paradises in the Caribbean were obliterated by Hurricane Irma, leaving thousands of residents battling against everything from lack of food and water to rampant lawlessness.
The United States launched a mass evacuation off devastated St. Martin, airlifting on Monday the last of about 1,500 Yanks who had been trapped on the resort island, officials said.
Rescued citizens were told they could only bring one small carry-on bag as they waited in hourslong lines to board giant C-130 cargo planes from New York, Puerto Rico and Kentucky.
They took off from the island’s Princess Juliana Airport, famous for its very low-flying landing approaches over a public beach. The airport is now a shell of its former self, its runway badly damaged by 185-mph winds.
The Royal Caribbean cruise line, too, helped in the exodus. One of its ships ferried 300 people, including roughly 200 US citizens, off St. Martin, the State Department said.
Bronx native Elvis Burton, who lives on the decimated island of Barbuda, said he’s grateful to be alive after evacuating to Antigua.
“I think it’s going to take a long time for Barbuda to get back on its foot. Everything is completely destroyed,” Burton, 57, told CNN.
“Most of the people left with just the clothes on their backs. I want to get back because I want to start to rebuild. It’s sinking in, you’re feeling the impact of the hurricane, after a day or two, you realize you have lost everything.”
At least 34 people were killed in the Caribbean during Irma — a toll that’s likely to rise as rescuers go through debris, officials said.
Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert promised that the US wouldn’t leave people behind without support, and praised efforts to help those in need.
“While I’m preaching caution to make sure that people understand this is an ongoing effort and there’s still going to be long, painful days ahead, I am doubling down on my assertion that this is the best integrated, full-scale response effort in our nation’s history,” Bossert told reporters in Washington, DC.
“That include the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and non-US islands where we helped American citizens during a window of oper- ational safety between [Hurricanes] José and Irma.”
Billionaire Richard Branson, whose private Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands was hit hard by Irma, said it will take a worldwide effort to rebuild the Caribbean island nations.
Branson, who took refuge in his mansion’s wine cellar during the storm, tweeted pictures of the damage on Monday.
He compared what will be needed to rebuild the Caribbean, including the British isles, to what the United States pulled off in post-World War II Europe à la the Marshall Plan.
“The region needs a ‘Disaster Recovery Marshall Plan’ for the BVI and other territories that will aid in recovery, sustainable reconstruction and long-term revitalisation of the local economy,” Branson wrote on his Web site.
“This will have to include building resilience against what is likely to be a higher intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, as the effects of climate change continue to grow.”
Branson said planes from his Virgin Atlantic fleet will bring building materials, blankets and bottled water this week to the British Virgin Islands and Antigua.
Meanwhile, looting was reportedly raging on Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands, where 120 prison inmates broke out of their storm-damaged lockup on Friday.
“I’ve been getting some updates on the ground out there on the British Virgin Islands and it’s really sad to say that there is a lot of civil unrest,” Branson’s son, Sam, said in an Instagram post Monday.
“Unfortunately some of the prisoners have escaped and are now armed.”
British, French and Dutch governments have dispatched forces to the pummeled region in hopes of restoring law and order.
Cuba, whose aging infrastructure was shaky before Irma, suffered some of the storm’s worst damage, with farmlands wiped out and big-city streets turned into canals.
“We have absolutely nothing, we lost it all, the fridge, the washing machine, we lost it all here,” said Havana resident Ayda Herrera, whose home was flooded.
Excavators worked to clear streets filled with snapped trees as trucks struggled to deliver fresh drinking water in major cities including Havana.
Cuban President Raúl Castro urged his citizens to rally from the disaster.
“These have been difficult days for our people, who, in a few hours time, have seen what was constructed with great effort hit by a devastating hurricane,” Castro said in a statement posted Monday in the state organ Granma.
“Images from the last few hours speak for themselves, as does the spirit of resistance and victory of our people that is regenerated with every adversity.”