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Hurricane Irma

Oh as has been pointed out to her he's her son, she raised him to cope in a crisis.

Would be nice to hear something though
 
^same person I was talking about up thread^

Satellite phone call received, all safe :)

"No apartment or hotel left"

Focus on the important stuff eh :thumbs:
 
The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda is talking live on here

Radio – ABS TV Radio Antigua & Barbuda

The line is awful, but the gist is that Barbuda is basically levelled.

It seems to have disappeared off that page, to me anyway, but found a decent video interview, and picture gallery, here:
Island of Barbuda 'literally under water' after Hurricane Irma

The PM reports the situation as being a complete disaster, the island is basically under water and virtually uninhabitable, considering evacuating everyone from the island. :(

The island of Barbuda is “literally under water” and “barely habitable” after nearly all of its buildings were destroyed by Hurricane Irma... about 60% of the population of about 1,800 is now homeless... Nearly every building on Barbuda was damaged... Roads and telecommunications systems were wrecked and recovery would take months, if not years, he added.
 
^same person I was talking about up thread^

Satellite phone call received, all safe :)

"No apartment or hotel left"

Focus on the important stuff eh :thumbs:
They have no idea whether, when or how their guests are going to be evacuated, nor whether they'll be going with them. They've lost everything.

Tropical Storm Jose has intensified into a category 1 hurricane and is on the way
 
St Martin "almost destroyed" :(

Doesn't bode well for its neighbours, Anguilla, St
Barts, Saba and so on.

Trying to balance these reports with they were made in the immediate aftermath when recovery is still in full swing, hopefully when day breaks today things aren't quite as bleak as they first appeared.


Poor bastards.
 
Waiting to hear from family and friends in Antigua. Friend in Barbuda evacuated to Antigua before the storm but undoubtedly her house is flattened. Her workplace (school) was the hurricane shelter but she doubted that would cope with the intensity of Irma, hence evacuating when things started to look like they were going to get very bad indeed. Havent heard anything from her since but I'm guessing she'll be ok in Antigua.

There's very little medical cover on Barbuda if anyone is injured - no doctor, anything that cant be dealt with by a nurse goes to Antigua (like me when I broke my cheekbone/split my eyebrow there - that was a fun flight I can tell you)
 
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Storm surge has been an issue as far south as St Lucia - had a call yesterday to say the sea was huge and the surge had swamped some of the small fishing villages
 
UK government response in Anguilla is being compared very unfavourably to that of the French government in St Martin & St Barthelemy. Apparently the French had a response in place before the hurricane hit while Anguilla had nothing and only in the last 24 hours has Priti Patel done anything
 
UK government response in Anguilla is being compared very unfavourably to that of the French government in St Martin & St Barthelemy. Apparently the French had a response in place before the hurricane hit while Anguilla had nothing and only in the last 24 hours has Priti Patel done anything

Let's be a bit fair here, St Martin is as much part of France as Corsica or Brittany, Anguilla is not part of the UK, in fact to get there you have to fly to St Martin and get a hopper flight or boat, and St Martin airport is FUBAR. Hopefully the British government can pull its head out of its arse for five minutes and see that they need to be doing something to help, right now!
 
Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory and its citizens are legally British with full residency rights etc. It's not good enough for the UK government to drag its heels.

I think we're pretty much in agreement though
 
There should be a British naval presence in the southern caribbean - there always is during the hurricane season. They've just got to get there whilst avoiding Jose and Katia
 
There should be a British naval presence in the southern caribbean - there always is during the hurricane season. They've just got to get there whilst avoiding Jose and Katia

RFA Mounts Bay is in the area with supplies, marines and army engineers but y'know, I reckon they'll need more than one ship...
 
There should be a British naval presence in the southern caribbean - there always is during the hurricane season. They've just got to get there whilst avoiding Jose and Katia

There is a RN ship in the area that specialises in disaster relief, needs to be more than just one though.
 
Death toll is ten so far - one in Anguilla, one (a two year old :( ) in Barbuda and eight in St Martin. Expected to rise.

Not seen much from the BVI or USVI but suspect communications not been reestablished yet.

Mandatory evacuations have been issued for coastal areas of Florida. Six southernmost islands of the Bahamas are being evacuated to Nassau, the largest storm evacuation in the history of the Bahamas.

Eye of the storm is passing just north of Hispaniola now. I could be wrong but it looks to me as though it is more northerly than had been feared, meaning the Dominican Republic & Haiti won't be quite as badly hit as had been feared. Still bad though.

Turks & Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and parts of Cuba are next in line
 
It's just so sad. A good friend lives in Antigua whom is also a journalist held a radio show for 20 hours trying to keep people updated/give support.

Two of Turks & Caicos islands were evacuated Tuesday evening.
 
Many years ago I visited the Museum of the Northern Territory in Darwin and stood in a completely dark room listening to a recording of Cyclone Tracy, which levelled the city at Christmas 1974. I don't think I've ever listened to something that's scared me quite so much before or since. Just looked it up and Tracy was probably only a category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale...
 
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