Hurricane Irma wreaks Caribbean islands, kills 11 – UPDATE

Hurricane Irma plowed past the Dominican Republic on Thursday after devastating a string of Caribbean islands and killing at least 11 people as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida.

UPDATE: With winds of around 180 mph (290 kph), the storm lashed several small islands in the northeast Caribbean, including Barbuda, St. Martin and the British Virgin Islands, tearing down trees, flattening homes and causing widespread damage.

UPDATE: Television footage of the Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin showed a damaged marina with boats tossed into piles, submerged streets and flooded homes. Power was knocked out on Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy and in parts of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

“It is an enormous disaster, 95 percent of the island is destroyed. I am in shock,” Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council on Saint Martin, told Radio Caribbean International.

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said eight people were killed and the toll was likely to rise.

“We did not have the time yet to explore all the shores,” Collomb told Franceinfo radio, adding that 23 people were also injured. In all, at least 10 people were reported killed by Irma on four islands.

UPDATE: Hurricane Irma is likely to be downgraded to a Category 4 storm by the time it makes landfall in Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Thursday.

Irma, at present a Category 5 storm packing maximum sustained winds of 180 miles (285 km) per hour, is moving off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, the NHC said.

It has become a little less organised over the past few hours but the threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week continues to increase, it said.

UPDATE: Dutch authorities say that there were no reports of victims.

UPDATE: Hurricane Irma has caused “enormous damage” to the Dutch side of the Caribbean island Saint Martin, the Dutch Royal Navy said on Thursday.

The navy, which has two ships stationed off the coast of the Island, tweeted images gathered by helicopter showing damaged houses hotels and boats.

The Dutch government has yet to comment on any Dutch casualties.

Vliegveld St. Maarten nu onbereikbaar. Zodra mogelijk gaan NL militairen daar aan de slag. #Irma pic.twitter.com/dIsOVyUpO1

— Koninklijke Marine (@kon_marine) September 7, 2017

UPDATE: The Caribbean island of Barbuda is a scene of “total carnage” after the passage of Hurricane Irma and the tiny two-island nation will be seeking assistance from the international community to rebuild, its prime minister said on Thursday.

Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told the BBC that about half of Barbuda’s population of some 1,800 were homeless while nine out of 10 buildings had suffered some level of devastation, many of them total destruction.

“We flew into Barbuda only to see total carnage. It was easily one of the most emotionally painful experiences that I have had,” Browne said in an interview on BBC Radio Four.

“Approximately 50 percent of them (residents of Barbuda) are literally homeless at this time. They are bunking together, we are trying to get … relief supplies to them first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, adding that it would take months or years to restore some level of normalcy to the island.

UPDATE: French Interior Minister confirms eight deaths on Saint Martin following the hurricane.

The dead were reported on four islands. Weather forecasters have described Irma as a “potentially catastrophic” Category 5 storm, the highest U.S. classification for hurricanes.

At least half of Puerto Rico’s homes and businesses were without power early on Thursday, according to Twitter posts and a message posted by an island utility executive.

The dual-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda was especially hard hit. The northernmost island, Barbuda, home to roughly 1,800 people, was “totally demolished,” with 90 percent of all dwellings there leveled, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said, according to island television broadcasts.

Browne said one person was killed on Barbuda. A second storm-related fatality, that of a surfer, was reported on Barbados. The French government said at least six people were killed in Caribbean island territories of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy. Power was knocked out on both.

“This is not, by far, a definitive number …. We have not explored all the parts of the island,” Guadeloupe prefect Eric Maire told reporters, adding the death toll was likely to rise in the next few hours.

Early television footage of Saint Martin showed a devastated marina with boats tossed into piles, submerged streets and flooded homes.

#HurricaineIrma #Irma #Irma2017 #SintMaarten #Hurricane #Irma
This use to be the lobby from Hotel #SaintMartin #prayfortheCaribbean pic.twitter.com/SiSKZw62JN

— The Invisible Man (@invisibleman_17) September 6, 2017

“It is an enormous disaster, 95 percent of the island is destroyed, I am in shock,” Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council, told Radio Caribbean International.

Scenes rn where i live (St.Martin).. Rain hasnt even started yet but strong waves overflowing into town ?? #HurricaneIrma #SaintMartin ??? pic.twitter.com/0FR1LKKu9h

— Guava?? (@gauravsxm) September 6, 2017

Irma, with top sustained winds of 180 miles per hour (290 km per hour), was on track to reach Florida on Saturday or Sunday, becoming the second major hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in as many weeks.

On its current path the core was expected to scrape the northern coast of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday. It was also on a track that would put it near the Turks and Caicos and southeastern Bahamas by Thursday evening.

The NHC said it was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the five most forceful storms to hit the Atlantic basin in 82 years.

While Irma’s intensity could fluctuate and its precise course remained uncertain, the storm was expected to remain at least a Category 4 before arriving in Florida.