Hurricane Irma, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, hit the eastern Caribbean on Wednesday with winds of up to 185 miles an hour.
The Category 5 storm leveled Barbuda, damaging 95 percent of its buildings and leaving the island barely habitable. It has since begun lashing Puerto Rico and is also threatening havoc and destruction in the Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands will also be at risk on Thursday.
With two confirmed deaths in the French Caribbean, President Emmanuel Macron of France said there would be victims to lament. There was also at least one death in Anguilla, a British territory; one in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda; and one in Puerto Rico, bringing the total to five so far.
President Trump declared a state of emergency in Florida, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands. The storm is expected to reach Florida on Sunday, potentially causing catastrophic flooding.
Early on Wednesday, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda said his nation had been spared the worst of the hurricane, declaring in a statement, The essential point is that our main infrastructure has stood up and our country can resume normal life within hours. He went so far as to add, I dare to say that no other country in the Caribbean would have been as well prepared as we were.
This turned out to be stunningly inaccurate: While the damage in Antigua was not as severe as expected, Mr. Browne announced in the afternoon that 95 percent of all structures on its sister island, Barbuda, had been damaged or destroyed, rendering the island barely habitable. A telecommunications tower was broken in two. At least one person, an infant, was killed.
Barbuda, home to about 1,600 people (3 percent of the country’s population), is literally rubble, the prime minister told ABS TV/Radio Antigua.
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