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UK Guardian has a live report link up for Hurricane Irma
20m ago 07:55
It is difficult to find fresh information about Irma’s effects on Barbuda, where the small population of less than 2,000 people is without power and phone lines.
Officials had earlier cautioned residents, and those on the sister island of Antigua, to take shelter in a statement that concluded: “May God protect us all.”
Heavy rains and winds have been reported from Antigua, where most of the Caribbean country’s population lives. More than 40 official shelters were set up for people there.
Little could have prepared the islands for a hurricane of this intensity, Associated Press reports:
It is difficult to find fresh information about Irma’s effects on Barbuda, where the small population of less than 2,000 people is without power and phone lines.
Officials had earlier cautioned residents, and those on the sister island of Antigua, to take shelter in a statement that concluded: “May God protect us all.”
Heavy rains and winds have been reported from Antigua, where most of the Caribbean country’s population lives. More than 40 official shelters were set up for people there.
Little could have prepared the islands for a hurricane of this intensity, Associated Press reports:
On the 108-square-mile island of Antigua, people who live in low-lying areas were staying with friends and relatives on higher ground or sleeping in churches, schools and community facilities built to withstand hurricanes. None of the shelters have yet been tested by category 5 winds, however.
Many homes in Antigua and Barbuda are not built on concrete foundations or have poorly constructed wooden roofs that are susceptible to wind damage.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/sep/06/hurricane-irma-caribbean-islands-category-5-storm
