The deadly category 5 storm - the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic - made its first landfall early Wednesday morning, pummeling Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and sparking a 'major humanitarian crisis'.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the hurricane had completely destroyed about 90 percent of the island's homes and vehicles.
'The entire housing stock was damaged... Some have lost whole roofs. Some properties have been totally demolished,' Browne said in an interview with ABS TV Radio in Antigua.
'It is just a total devastation. Barbuda is literally rubble,' he added, saying the island that is home to a population of 1,800 was 'barely habitable'.
'We have estimated the rebuilding efforts to be no less than $150 million. That is conservative, because we're talking about rebuilding everything, all of the institutions, the infrastructure, the telecommunications, the roads... Even the hotels on the island, those are totally demolished, as well. It is terrible.'
Aerial footage of the island after Irma passed through showed a desolate, flooded landscape shorn of trees and foliage with overturned vehicles and scattered debris.
A two-year-old child was killed in Barbuda while trying to escape a damaged building with its mother. Two were killed when the hurricane struck St. Barts and St. Martin, while another death was reported in Anguilla.
Hurricane Irma destroyed 90 percent of the tiny island of Barbuda (above) when it made landfall early on Wednesday. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the hurricane had reduced the island to 'rubble'
The majority of Barbuda's buildings were flattened when Hurricane Irma battered the tiny island with a population of 1,600
Credit to Daily Mail
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4857842/Hurricane-Irma-slams-Caribbean.html#ixzz4rxZJY8i3
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