Hurricane Irma’s path of death and destruction in the Caribbean

Roseau, Dominica (TDN) - Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm continued its trek through the Northern Caribbean leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake.

Starting on the wee hours of Wednesday morning, hurricane Irma with sustained winds of 185 miles an hour blasted its way through Barbuda before making direct hits on St Barthelemy, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and St Maarten.

It also side swept the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, before racing ahead threatening the Island of Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos islands, the Bahamas Cuba and eventually the US states of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

The death toll had risen to at least eleven on Thursday afternoon, with dire warnings from the authorities that this number could rise further as search and rescue efforts got underway. French authorities confirmed four people dead on St Maarten and the US government confirmed three deaths on St Thomas while one was confirmed in Barbuda and two in the British Virgin Islands.

Meanwhile hurricane Irma flattened homes, destroyed business places and uprooted trees as it continued its rampage across the region. Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua noted that at least 98 percent of the building stock on Barbuda was destroyed. Similar estimates were also offered for Anguilla and St Maarten.

This satellite image shows Barbuda in the center of the eye of hurricane Irma.

On St Maarten the famed Julian international airport laid in ruins and marina’s and other areas throughout the islands displayed scenes of carnage reminiscent of horror movies.

However, what happened with hurricane Irma was real to the thousands of inhabitants of the Islands many of whom were counting their blessings to be alive in the midst of this wide scale destruction.

Even as Hurricane Irma worked its way towards the United States forecasters issued new hurricane watches and warnings for the Northern Leeward islands the very same islands devastated by Irma.

Hurricane Jose is expected to make landfall over the weekend on these rather unfortunate islands in the Caribbean.