Hurricane Irma leaves trail of devastation across Caribbean

Hurricane Irma has sowed a trail of deadly devastation through the Caribbean, reducing to rubble the tropical islands of Barbuda and St. Martin and claiming at least seven lives.

One of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, the dangerous Category Five hurricane was churning off the north coast of Puerto Rico on Wednesday night, on a potential collision course with south Florida, where at-risk areas were evacuated.

The French part of St. Martin — a pristine resort known for its vibrant nightlife — suffered the storm's full fury: at least six people died and 95 percent of dwellings were decimated, officials said.

"It's an enormous catastrophe. Ninety five percent of the island is destroyed," top local official Daniel Gibbs said in a radio interview. "I'm in shock. It's frightening."

Guadeloupe prefect Eric Maire called the situation in St. Martin "dramatic," saying the island — which is divided between the Netherlands and France — was without drinking water or electricity, and warning the death toll was almost certain to rise.

French President Emmanuel Macron earlier warned the final toll would be "harsh and cruel."

To the southeast, Barbuda, part of the twin island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, suffered "absolute devastation," with 95 percent of properties damaged, and up to 30 percent demolished, according to Prime Minister Gaston Browne.

"Barbuda now is literally rubble," Browne said. One person is known to have died on the island of 1,600 residents, apparently a child whose family was trying to get to safer ground.

Irma was packing maximum sustained winds of up to 295 kph as it followed a projected path that would see it hit the northern edges of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, continuing past eastern Cuba before veering north for Florida.

‘Haiti vulnerable’

More than half of Puerto Rico's population of three million is without power, with rivers breaking their banks in the center and north of the island, where Governor Ricardo Rossello activated the National Guard and opened storm shelters sufficient to house up to 62,000 people.

Blanca Santiago, who works in a beachside hotel in Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan, described the howl of the wind whipping the coastline: "It was as if there were ghosts inside my home."

In Cuba, a state of alert was declared in several eastern and central provinces, with at-risk residents advised to move in with relatives or reach government shelters.

Haiti's northern coast was on hurricane alert, although in the town of Cap-Haitien residents appeared mostly unaware of the impending storm.

"It's thanks to word of mouth that we always learn about these things," said Josue Rosse, as he crouched next to a tree trunk that he was digging out to make a boat.

"We live on the edge of the sea but no one in authority has come to tell us what's what."

‘Florida in path of storm’

Category Five is the highest on the scale for hurricanes in the Atlantic, and hurricanes of this intensity are rare. They can cause severe flooding, tear off roofing, shatter windows and uproot palm trees, turning them into deadly projectiles.

Irma follows hot on the heels of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated swaths of Texas and Louisiana in late August. Irma was hitting the Caribbean even as two other tropical storms, Jose in the Atlantic Ocean and Katia in the Gulf of Mexico, were upgraded to hurricane status.

With forecasters warning of catastrophe, including surges of up to 7.6 meters above normal tide levels, people evacuated tourist areas, stocked up on provisions, and packed into shelters across an area stretching as far north as Florida.

The Sunshine State is expecting to face the brunt of the storm from Friday night.

SS