More Than 1,000,000 Left Without Power as Hurricane Irma Batters Caribbean
Irma's Destruction: Island by Island
The Category Five Hurricane Has Ripped Through the Caribbean, Leaving Flattened Landscapes, Flash Floods and Loss of Life
The Guardian UK / Metro UK, 8 Sept 2017
Hurricane Irma has devastated the Caribbean (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
Antigua and Barbuda
At least eight people have been killed and 23 injured
Large buildings have also been badly damaged in the storm with roofs blown off and windows smashed (Picture: Backgrid)
About 60 percent of the island’s 1,400 residents were left homeless, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said.
Barbuda, the first island to feel the force of Hurricane Irma was devastated by its high winds, with Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, saying 90% of buildings had been destroyed and 50% of the population of around 1,000 people left homeless.
Many people have been made homeless as a result of the hurricane (Picture: Backgrid)
One person – a two-year-old child – is confirmed to have died in the storm. Michael Joseph, president of the Red Cross in Antigua and Barbuda said:
The devastation is not like we’ve ever seen before – we’re talking about the whole country … of Barbuda being significantly destroyed.
Critical facilities including roads and communications systems were ravaged, with the recovery effort set to take months or years. Some residents are expected to be evacuated to the larger sister island of Antigua – where damage was less severe – as part of relief efforts and ahead of the prospective arrival of Hurricane Jose this weekend.
Browne said he would order the evacuation of Barbuda if forecasters predict that Jose will hit the island in the coming days.
Anguilla
At least seven people have been killed as 180mph winds battered Barbuda (Picture: ABS/Facebook)
The storm has already wreaked havoc on the islands of Anguilla, Barbuda, St Martin and St Barts
One person died in the British overseas territory, said Ronald Jackson, executive director of the Caribbean disaster and emergency management agency, who added that “police stations, hospitals, school facilities, three or four emergency shelters, a home for the infirm and the aged, as well as the fire station”, along with many homes, had been damaged or destroyed.
Hurricane Irma: Storm Batters Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Category Five Superstorm Hits Turks and Caicos Islands, With at Least 13 People Confirmed Dead Across Caribbean
UK foreign office minister Alan Duncan said: “The initial assessment is that the damage has been severe and in places critical.”
The tourist board said major resorts on the island had withstood the onslaught. The airport and two ports remain closed.
The British government had been accused of a failure to respond speedily to the devastation. On Thursday, it announced an extra £32m in aid and will send hundreds of marines and royal engineers, as well as HMS Ocean, currently deployed in the Mediterranean.
St Kitts & Nevis
Flooded properties close to the sea following a storm surge (Picture: Getty)
Kevin Barralon took this picture after Irma passed the island (Picture: Getty)
Prime minister Timothy Harris said St Kitts was “spared the full brunt” of Irma, but warned of “significant damage” to property and infrastructure, as well as power failures. The airport reopened on Thursday. A hurricane warning and flash-flooding watch have been discontinued, and residents and visitors given the all-clear.
St Martin and St Barts
Debris and damaged cars in Marigot, near the Bay of Nettle, on the French Collectivity of Saint Martin, after the passage of Hurricane Irma (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)
The French part of the island (the southern side, St Maarten, is administered by the Netherlands) was “95% destroyed”, according to Daniel Gibb, a local official, who called it “an enormous catastrophe”:
I have sick people to evacuate, I have a population to evacuate because I don’t know where I can shelter them.
Four people were killed in St Martin, according to French prime minister Édouard Philippe, who said 50 were injured across the island and another French overseas collectivity, Saint Barthélemy (St Barts). Power was cut across the island and many roads are impassable.
The number of victims on the Dutch half of the island, St Maarten, is unknown. Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte says there has been “enormous material damage” to St Maarten, and has sent marines and two aid flights.
People have been rushing to board up their homes, fill their cars with petrol and find a last-minute route to safety before the hurricane hits.
Storm damage in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, in St. Maarten (Picture: Gerben Van Es/Dutch Defense Ministry via AP)
Massive destruction of the historic district on the Dutch island of St Maarten (Picture: ZUMAPRESS.com/MEGA)
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, earlier said he expected Irma-related damage to St Martin and St Barts would be “considerable”. France’s overseas minister, Annick Girardin, travelled to the Caribbean with emergency teams and supplies.
Virgin Islands
A huge clean-up operation is now underway (Picture: Getty)
Many homes were destroyed and trees were blown down in the hurricane (Picture: Getty)
Significant damage has been reported from the British Virgin Islands, where critical facilities, as well as homes, businesses and supermarkets, have been devastated.
UK foreign minister Alan Duncan said: “The British Virgin Islands were also not spared the hurricane’s full force. Our initial assessment is of severe damage and we expect that the islands will need extensive humanitarian assistance which we will of course provide.”
Sam Branson, son of Virgin businessman Richard Branson – who saw out the storm in a bunker on his private island of Necker – said “a lot of buildings” had been destroyed.
Four people are confirmed to have died in the US Virgin Islands, with a government spokesman predicting the toll would rise. There were reports of extensive damage to buildings, and of land entirely stripped of vegetation.
Many roads are inaccessible in the USVI, and schools are reported to be destroyed.
Puerto Rico
People pick up debris as Hurricane Irma howled past Puerto Rico (Picture: Reuters/Alvin Baez)
People recover broken parts of the dock after the passing of Hurricane Irma
Lashing winds and rains have left more than a million people without power and tens of thousands without water. Images from the island showed flash flooding, and hospitals were forced to rely on generators.
Three people – two women and a man – have been confirmed dead, and rescuers are searching for the missing. Waves of up to 30 feet (9 metres) were reported. Several thousand people remain in emergency shelters.
Governor Ricardo Rosselló has also declared a disaster in the tiny islands of Culebra and Vieques, to Puerto Rico’s east, which were hard-hit by the storm. So far there has been little information from the islands.
A man walks through Puerto Rico during fierce winds (Picture: Reuters)
Stefany Santacruz took this picture showing the storm surge (Picture: Getty)
Irma is the worst hurricane to hit the island since 1928, when Hurricane San Felipe killed more than 2,700 people across Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and Florida.
Dominican Republic
Hurricane Irma: WATCH LIVE: Irma Batters Dominican Republic
Irma passed to the north – show widespread damage: flattened buildings, downed trees and power lines. The coastal resorts of Cabarete and Sosua were reported to have seen storm surges, and more than 5,000 people were evacuated across the country.
On Thursday, Juan Manuel Mendez, director of the centre of emergency operations, said people there should “not let down their guard … the worst isn’t over”.
Haiti
Irma continued its path across the north of Hispaniola – the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti – taking down a key bridge between the two. Heavy rains thrashed the north coast and several areas lost power.
Two people were reportedly injured in the northern port town of Cap-Haïtien when a tree crashed into their home.
Officials had admitted they were not prepared for the onslaught and no mandatory evacuation orders were in place ahead of Irma’s approach. But reports from Cap-Haïtien so far suggest Haiti has been spared the worst effects of the category 5.
Turks and Caicos
The Turks and Caicos islands have been hit by the hurricane (Picture: Getty)
Irma was “pummelling” the British overseas territory on Thursday evening, the US National Hurricane Center said, with winds of 175mph (280kmh).
Governor John Freeman said some people had been moved to shelters ahead of the hurricane’s arrival, but warned others to:
Hunker down, stay where you are … Nobody can get to you either – people are, for a little while, on their own.
Electricity supplies had failed on Grand Turk, which meant water production was also out, Freeman said.
Bahamas
Overnight on Thursday, the eye of the storm moved on to the southern Bahamas, passing just north of Great Inagua island. The US National Hurricane Center warned that storm surges could lift water levels in south-eastern and central Bahamas by 15-20ft (4.5-6m) above normal levels.
Bahamas prime minister Hubert Minnis said his government had evacuated people from six islands in the south to the capital, Nassau, in the largest storm evacuation in the country’s history. Airports have been closed.
Homes of The Rich and Famous in The Path of Hurricane Irma
Homes of the rich and famous are in the path of Hurricane Irma as she rages through the Caribbean
With its beautiful white sands, hot weather and isolation of some of its islands the Caribbean is a playground for the rich and famous.
However, many of them are now hoping that their homes will be spared serious damage as Hurricane Irma batters the islands with 185mph winds.
Richard Branson’s son has already said that most buildings on Necker Island have been destroyed, but it is not currently known how badly other well-known people’s homes have been damaged.
Donald Trump and Roman Abramovich both have luxury mansions that have already been hit in St Martin and Guadeloupe respectively, as does Oprah Winfrey in Antigua.
But as Irma heads towards Florida, the homes of Bruce Willis, Kieth Richards, David Copperfield, Johnny Depp and Eddie Murphy are all in the path.
Donald Trump’s island home is likely to be hit badly by the storm (Picture: Sothebys)
The home is worth £21.5million (Picture: Sotheby’s)
Donald Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach could be affected by the storm, said his administration is monitoring Irma closely.
‘It looks like it could be something that could be not good, believe me not good,’ the US president said.
With sustained winds of 185mph, the category five hurricane is the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane on record.
It is only the second time anywhere in the world a storm has been recorded maintaining such windspeeds for more than 24 hours, after typhoon Haiyan in 2013, according to an expert at the University of Colorado.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the Associated Press that nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged when the hurricane passed overhead, leaving around 60% of the island’s approximately 1,400 people homeless.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s private island in the Bahamas (Picture: FameFlynet)
Eddy Murphy’s island in the Caribbean (Picture: Google)
Barbuda has been left ‘barely habitable’, he said.
Before the hurricane’s arrival Sir Richard refused to his Necker Island retreat and said he would be seeking shelter in the wine cellar with his staff.
His son, Sam, later wrote on Instagram:
‘Glad to say that all humans on Necker are ok although a lot of buildings destroyed. Very concerned for our friends and everyone on the neighbouring islands and people in its path. Please don’t take this hurricane lightly if it is heading your way.’
Christian Aid is helping to orchestrate the mass evacuation of Haiti
The charity’s country manager, Prospery Raymond, said: ‘People are being moved to schools and churches for safety but in some areas, especially in the north west of Haiti, these buildings will not withstand the force of the storm.’
Another view of Johnny Depp’s island in the Bahamas (Picture: FameFlynet)
Necker Island, owned by Richard Branson
Richard Branson revealed what was being done to protect property on Necker Island
He said that Necker had faced hurricanes before but not one of this intensity
Where Next?
A hurricane warning is in place in
Cuba, where tourists are being evacuated and residents of coastal towns told to move inland.
By late Saturday, Irma is forecast to hit
Florida, where mandatory evacuation orders have already been issued for Florida Keys and swaths of southern and coastal Florida. All hospitals in the Florida Keys archipelago will close at 7am Friday, and coast guard and rescue services have left.
.