The tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda is “uninhabitable” after it was steamrolled by Hurricane Irma, officials there stated as the superstorm’s death toll climbs.
Barbuda and Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne reported that 90 percent of the structures on Barbuda were destroyed by sustained 185-mph winds when Irma made landfall at 1:47 a.m.
“As it stands, Barbuda is almost uninhabitable,” Browne told Antigua/Barbuda Broadcasting Services, including that destruction on the island home to nearly 1,700 soulds was “heart-wrenching. I never contemplated any possibility that you could have such a contrast,” he said of the relative destruction.” A significant number of your homes have actually been completely destroyed,” stated his chief of staff, Lionel Hurst.
The damage done by Irma would “be no less than $150 million, and that is no exaggeration,” Browne was quoted by Fox News as saying, while adding that “at least 60 percent of the population of Barbuda is actually homeless” now.
The massive storm system has already claimed several lives and officials are expecting that toll to rise as rescue and recovery work starts.
““At the present moment, there are reports of two dead and two seriously injured,” said the French minister for overseas affairs, Annick Girardin, according to Agence France-Presse. “But obviously, the situation can change very, very quickly. As it stands now, Barbuda is barely habitable,” he said in the video.
Here’s what could happen when Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Florida.
