Hurricane Irma and the response to it

Background
The Caribbean is known for it's cyclones and hurricanes. It has, and always will be planning to survive such an event. Hurricane Irma was the worst ever as of September 2017.

Barbuda, like many of the smaller Caribbean islands, is a coral island rising a mere 125 feet (38 meters) above sea level and is thus more vunrible to any exstreem weather events that hit it, unlike the bigger islands like Jamacia and Cuba.

All the islands it hit and the US state of Florida had ordered either mandatory evacuations to safer land and\or the usual boarding up of windows and stockpiling of supplies such as medicine, food, water, batteries and so forth.

On Barbuda, authorities ordered an evacuation of all 1,400 people to neighboring Antigua the day befor the storm hit.

The French had an emergency generator and equipment on the island awaiting such useage, while the Dutch had nothing on the island of St Martin. The British, independent and America,islands were prepared as best they were. Cuba was well known for it's historic storm evacuation and recovery planing.

The hurricane it's self
Hurricane Irma was the most powerful hurricane ever to hit the Atlantic, with Cuba reporting record wind speeds of between 185 mph and 159 mph (256 kph), and 185 mph were reported in the the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico St Martin and St. Maarten. Barbuda was hit by winds between 157 mph (252 kph) and 295 km/h (185 mph). The Bahamas were hit by winds speeds of 150mph. It was about 30 miles wide. The hurricane hit across most of the region devastating buildings, transportation, utilities and national infrastructure.

A 20 foot storm surge wave hit all areas north of and including the island of Saint Martin. It penetrated low lying parts of Cuba for up to half of a kilometer in land with 23 foot waves.

The Cuban government has extended its maximum state of alert to three additional provinces, including Havana, amid fears of flooding in low-lying areas late on September 9th.

It first emerged as a tropical low over the island of Ilha Formosa of the coast of Guinea Bissau on August 27th and became noteworthy as it went out to sea on the 28th.

The damage, deaths and injuries caused

 *  Officially death toll estimates were: 22 by 2.00pm UTC  on the 8th (The Denver Post)  21 by 2.00pm UTC    on the 9th (CBS)  and 19 at 10.00pm UTC    on September 9th   (Channels24 Telivison)  . 
 * 1) Indipendent nations:
 * 2) Dominican Republic- Low destruction levels. 2(?) dead.
 * 3) Bahamas- moderate damage in the southern islands.
 * 4) Dominica,
 * 5) St Kitts and Nevis- Heavy damage.
 * 6) Haiti- Negligible destruction levels levels. 1(?) dead.
 * 7) St Vincent and The Grenadines- Moderate damage destruction.
 * 8) St Lucia- Low destruction.
 * 9) Barbados- Minimal damage. The 16 year old surfer Zander Venezia was killed riding wave during Hurricane Irma in a shallow reef at a popular, but difficult to master surfing beach called Box by Box on September 5th.
 * 10) Cuba- Healy damaged and costal floods. 900,000 without power. Water and power outages in many places. 1 (?) or 2(?) deaths.
 * 11) Jamaica- Negligible destruction levels levels.
 * 12) Antigua and Barbuda- Antigua ~90% damage, Barbuda ~95% damage. 1 dead on each island.
 * UK:
 * 1) Cayman Islands- Negligible destruction levels levels.
 * 2) Montserrat- Heavy damage. 14(c) dead.
 * 3) Turks and Caicos Islands- 14(c) dead.
 * 4) Anguilla- 100% destruction. 14(c) dead.
 * 5) British Virgin Islands- ~95% destruction. 14(c) or 5 dead. Internet, water, phones and eletrisaty are minamal.
 * 6) France:
 * 7) St Martin- ~95% destruction, 8(a), 19(b), 10 (d), or 2 dead.
 * 8) St Barthelemy- 100% destruction 8(a) 19(b)
 * 9) St Thomas- Heavy damage. 19(b) dead.
 * 10) Guadeloupe- Heavy damage. 19(b) dead.
 * 11) Martinique- Heavy damage. 19(b) dead.
 * 12) Netherlands:
 * 13) St Maarten- ~90% destruction, 45 dead or 10 (d).
 * 14) Bonaire/St Eustatius/Saba- Negligible destruction levels levels.
 * 15) Aruba- Negligible destruction levels levels.
 * USA:
 * 1) US Virgin Islands ~90% destruction and 2(?) dead.
 * 2) Porto Rico- Low destruction levels. ~2,000,000 without electricity and many phone lines were downed. 5(?) dead.
 * 3) Florida
 * 4) The Florida Keys
 * 5) Georgia
 * 6) Alabama
 * (a)= A combined, pan-colony official death toll on September 8th.
 * (b)= A combined, pan-colony official death toll on September 9th.
 * (c)= A combined, pan-colony official death toll on September 9th.
 * (d)= A combined, pan-colony official death toll on September 9th.

least 9 people dead, 7 missing and 112 injured on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barts by the 10th according to French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to know that further damage is imminent.” said Inspector Frankie Thomas of the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda on the 8th in reference to Hurricane Jose's arrival on the 9th.

Sharon Flax-Brutus, director of tourism for the islands, said “many homes are without roofs, or have been diminished to merely foundations”.

“It has now stopped raining, but all night there was a terrible wind.” said, Gisela Fernandez, a 42-year-old nurse in central Villa Clara province told a AFP reporter.

The governor of the central Camaguey province, Isabel Gonzalez, went on national television, late on September 9th, to warn people of “major damage.” without giving further details.

UK's response to Hurricane Irma
France and the UK pleged to send substanial aid packages to the region and it began ariving on September 8th.


 *  The UK's aid package included: 
 * 1) 200 shelter kits, each able to support a family of 5.
 * 2) HMS Ocean
 * 3) RFA Mounts Bay
 * 4) 40 Royal Marines and Army Engineers on board tasked with restoring clean water, sanitation, temporary shelter and if required, medical assistance and rebuilding Anguilla's airport.
 * 5) The UK charity, MapAction, sent a 2 person Disaster Mapping Team to the Caribbean to support mapping and information management on site.
 * 6) The British Red Cross and the ICRC sent rescue workers to the islands involved.
 * 7) 2 C17 cargo planes and a Voyager cargo plane, were flying from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, carrying around 200 Royal Marines, engineers, 2 Puma helicopters and life-saving equipment.
 * 8) £32 million on September 9th, up from £12 million on September 8th.

..

Several cruise lines to help evacuate Irma-ravaged St. Thomas on September 9th.

The British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said the UK’s response was “very good”.

Tourist evacuations
Cruse lines evacuated thire clients and some other tourists on September 6th and 7th, depending on location.

The USA and Canada sent aircraft in to rescue thire nationals between September 4th and 7th, depending on location. Sadly, the commercial flights from USA, in particular Florida, horrendously price gouged thire passengers!

Several cruise lines to help evacuate Irma-ravaged St. Thomas on September 9th

Thomas Cook, which was still suffering from an ongoing pilots' pay strike that started on September 7th, sent some reps to Cuba on the 9th to tell it's clients it had no intention of holding an evacuation, even if the strike was going to stop.

2,500 Thomas Cook passengers, had to travel 8 hours in 11 coaches from the resort of Cayo Coco to the town of Varadero on the 9th after things got to dangerous. When the tourist complained, they accused the Cubans of giving them bad advice.

Price gouging
The USA and Canada sent aircraft in to rescue thire nationals between September 4th and 7th, depending on location. Sadly, the commercial flights from USA, in particular Florida, horrendously price gouged thire passengers!

Hurricane Irma related price gouging reports rose to over 3,000 cases on September 9th on the Florida price gouging hotline.

Insurance costs
It was estimated on September 9th that Florida Insurers were facing a $200,000,000,000 bill.

Political fall out
The Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee and international development committee head, and Labour MP Stephen Twigg wrote to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and International Development Secretary Priti Patel on the 8th criticising the “lack of forward thinking”.

Stephen Twigg said: “Experts and many in the area have been critical of the overall level of relief currently on offer as well as the apparent lack of forward-thinking once the storm’s route to Florida became more than just a possibility.”

Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, criticised the speed of the Government’s response to the growing crisis in their dependencies (colony with a large degree of home rule) after Hurricane Irma on the 8th. He said the impact of Hurricane Irma on the Caribbean was “entirely predictable” and the British government “should have acted much faster”.

French aid program
French President Emmanuel Macron called an emergency meeting at the Elysée Palace on September 9th to organised an aid programmer for St. Bartholomew and the Franco-Dutch isle of St. Martin, both devastated by Hurricane Irma.

least 9 people dead, 7 missing and 112 injured on the French Caribbean islands of St. Martin and St. Barts by the 10th according to French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb.

Criminality on St Martin\St Maarten
The island is historically split in half between the north, which is a French collectivity (territory), and the south which is a part of the Netherlands proper. The French allready had some emergency generators and rescue equipment on the island awaiting such useage, while the Dutch had nothing.

The Dutch side's airport is only open to occasional light aircraft and helicopters, the French half's airport is only open to helicopters and thire desalination plant is back in operation.

The Dutch abandoned thire half until troops were sent in on the 7th after starving crowd went out looting for survival, followed by the inevitable general breakdown of law and order. This general lawlessness and looting of high-end consumer goods and up-market sofas spread to the French half, so the governor called in specialist police from the French mainland to back up the local police units and help defend arriving French aid workers. A curfew and martial law were declared in both haves during the 8th and 9th to quell the looting and rioting.

Looting and gunshots were reported on St. Martin, and a precautionary curfew was imposed in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) declared a state of emergency and governor Gus Jaspert asked the UK for help on September 9th.

3 gendarmery squads, 3 police mobile unit landed on the French half of the island with building materials, tents, food, medication and water between the 9th and 12th.

States of emergency
Antigua and Barbuda's PM, Gaston Browne, declared a state of emergency asked the world for help on September 7th.

Anguilla, declared a state of emergency asked the world for help on September 7th.

Martial law were declared in both haves of the island of St Martin during the 8th and 9th to quell the looting and rioting.

A precautionary curfew was imposed in the U.S. Virgin Islands on the 9th.

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) declared a state of emergency and governor Gus Jaspert asked the UK for help on September 9th.

The governor of Florida and the Mayor of Miami gratuitously declared a curfew in the city starting at 20.00 on September 9th, local time.

Florida sadly slipped in to a growing state state of emergency between September 4th and 8th as more counties were deemed to be at risk. Southern Georgia and the coastal parts of Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas were put under a state of emergency on the 8th.

The long term consequences
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Political fallout
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UK government phone line

 * Foreign Office hotline for British or British Dependent Teritory people affected is: 020 7008 0000.