INTERNATIONAL NEWS - Reports of fatalities and widespread damage in northern Caribbean islands began to emerge Wednesday night after Hurricane Irma blasted through, packing devastating winds and rain.
"Barbuda right now is literally a rubble," Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda told an interviewer with ABS TV/Radio Antigua.
"The entire housing stock was damaged," Browne said after visiting the island of 1,800. "It is just a total devastation."
Irma killed at least three people, destroyed government buildings, tore roofs from houses and left islands without power or communications. St. Martin/St. Maarten and St. Barts also felt the fury of the Category 5 storm, one of the strongest ever recorded in the Atlantic, according to updates from the region.
Browne said there currently is no water or phone service for Barbuda residents. He said one fatality, an infant, had been confirmed.
Communication was disrupted after winds snapped a cell tower in two on the island.
Hurricane Irma batters Caribbean islands
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Reports of fatalities and widespread damage in northern Caribbean islands began to emerge Wednesday night.
Posted on: 07:55 Thu, 07 September 2017
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