Caribbean hunkers down
Islands, fresh off devastating storm, brace for another
After being pummeled by Hurricane Irma, the islands prepared for a hit from Hurricane Jose.
Hurricane Caribbean infrastructure,other Battered essentialsmedical and islandsIrma, supplies communications,reeling prepared isolated lacking fromand to weatheron the regionJose, anotheras Saturday.it potentbore downhurricane, the Jose northernwas headed Leeward towardIslands, which include Antigua and Barbuda, St. Martin, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, with sustained winds of 145 mph — a Category 4 storm. of Last flooded week streets,Irma left toppleda trail buildings, uprooted trees, upside-down boats and cars, and residents and visitors scrambling to secure shelter, food and clean water. Many people were looking for ways off the islands. Irma has already killed more than 20 people across the Caribbean. Drone and helicopter footage shows it flattened homes, businesses and lush tropical vegetation. It’s expected to hit South Florida early Sunday.
Ahead of Jose’s expected arrival later Saturday in Barbuda, Prime Minister Gaston Browne ordered the emergency evacuation of that is l and’s entire population, about 1 , 600 people, to neighboring Antigua, which was spared the brunt of Irma. An estimated 95% of all buildings in Barbuda have been destroyed.
In St. Martin, an island dually governed by France and the Netherlands, Peter Jan de Vin, a Dutch military commander, tweeted a picture of marines dropping flyers from a helicopter need warning people th ar they
t to find shelter befo e Jose’s potentially destructive winds descend on the island.
The Dutch government says 70% of the homes on its part of the island were damaged or destroyed in Irma, leaving many residents dependent on public shelters as they brace for the next storm.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said looting broke out on the island. About 230 Dutch troops and police were patrolling, with 200 more on the way, he said.
As tate of emergency was called in the British Virgin Islands, an archipelago of about 70 islands and small cays with 35,000 people, where the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said four people were dead after Irma. Because of the sheer devastation to the islands, information was hard to come by, and authorities cautioned the death toll could rise.
A Faceboo k group called “BVI Abroad — Hurricane Ir-ma” was filled with posts ur- gently seeking information about missing friends and family members, images and video of the destruction, updates on the emergency response, and pleas for authorities and volunteers to get more help for people stranded in hard-to-reach areas.
“We have enough freshwater for all of us to survive for two weeks, if we ration,” Catherine Clayton, whose family owns an eight-room hotel in Josiah’s Bay, a relatively remote corner of the largest BVI island, Tortola, told York Times. “Same for Thed New
foo .” Posts to the Facebook group expressed anger at the perceived slow response by the British government, which has pledged $42 million and 20 tons of aid to the Caribbean.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, where four died, U.S. military and Federal Emergency Management Agency were providing relief on the ground, but utilities were bad y affected, and the roof of the lonly hospital in St. Thomas was blown away.
The state of devastation in Cuba, which Irma pummeled early Saturday, was not known. Cuban authorities reported significant damage but no deaths, according to the AFP news agency.
In St. Martin, marines dropped flyers from a helicopter warning people to find shelter before Jose hit.