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Irma's destruction: island by island

The Guardian
Claire Phipps
5 days ago

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1/106 SLIDES Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

A man walks among the destruction left by Hurricane Irma at the Phillipsburg Town Beach on September 11, 2017 in
Philipsburg, St. Maarten.

Provided by Photo Services

Antigua and Barbuda

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 60% of the population of around 1,400 people left
homeless.

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 weve ever seen before were 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.

Barbuda suffers unprecedented damage from Irma

Anguilla
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.

Follow the storm

Related: Hurricane Irma: French St Martin '95% destroyed' as Florida orders evacuations
live

The tourist board said major resorts on the island had withstood the onslaught. The airport
and two ports remain closed.

The British government has been accused of a failure to respond speedily to the
devastation.

St Kitts & Nevis

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
is due to reopen on Thursday.
 AFP/Getty Images A picture taken on September 7, 2017 shows a flooded street in Gustavia on the French
overseas collectivity of Saint-Barthelemy in the Caribbean following hurricane Irma. Hurricane Irma sowed a

St Martin and St Barts

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 dont know where
Ican shelter them.
At least six people were killed in St Martin, according to Guadeloupe prefect Eric Maire.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, earlier said he expected Irma-related damage to
St Martin and another French overseas collectivity, Saint Barthlemy (St Barts), would be
considerable. Frances overseas minister, Annick Girardin, was travelling to the Caribbean
with emergency teams and supplies.

The Netherlands has sent marines to St Maarten, the Dutch part of the island, where
extensive damage and destruction but so far no deaths have been reported.

Virgin Islands
Significant damage has been reported from the British Virgin Islands, where critical
facilities, as well as homes, businesses and supermarkets, have been devastated. 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.
US president Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in the US Virgin Islands,
which were also struck. There were reports of extensive damage to buildings, and of land
entirely stripped of vegetation. A public health emergency has also been declared.

Puerto Rico
The most recent island to be hit was Puerto Rico, where lashing winds and rains have left
most of the population without power and tens of thousands without water. Images from
the island showed flash flooding, and hospitals were forced to rely on generators.

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.

Where next?
The eye of the storm is due to pass just north of Hispaniola the Dominican Republic and
Haiti on Thursday, moving on to Turks and Caicos and the southern Bahamas by
Thursday evening.

The US National Hurricane Center warned that the north of the Dominican Republic and
Haiti could expect 10 inches (25cm) of rain, with storm surges lifting water levels in the
Turks and Caicos Islands and south-eastern and central Bahamas by 15-20ft (4.5-6m) above
normal levels.

Bahamas prime minister Hubert Minnis said his government was evacuating people from

six islands in the south to the capital, Nassau, in the largest storm evacuation in the

countrys history.

A hurricane watch remains in place in Cuba.

By Friday, Irma could hit Florida, where mandatory evacuation orders have already been
issued for residents in Miami-Dade and Miami Beach, who must leave their homes on
Thursday. All hospitals in the Florida Keys archipelago will close at 7am Friday.

Florida will be directly impacted by Hurricane Irma, governor says

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