Mena: Hurricane Irma has destroyed 90% of the island of Barbuda making the island unlivable causing the citizens of Barbuda to be evacuated. This is very sad for a people to lose family members, friends and property in a natural disaster and after that have to live the place they are living. The situation in Barbuda remind me of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans that caused the Black residents to live the city.
The Caribbean islands of Barbuda, St Vincent, St Martin were more devastated by hurricane this summer then the USA city of Houston by hurricane Harvey and the state of Florida by hurricane Irma. The devastation in Barbuda is not being exposed in the media like the damages the hurricanes did in Houston and Florida. The United Kingdoms was not fast enough to send help to Barbuda, St Vincent, the Virgin Islands and Saint Martin. I hope that the people of Barbuda and other islands who were the victims of hurricane Irma receive massive help and their islands be rebuild.
Irma devastation in Barbuda
hit the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda so hard that, for the first time in 300 years, no one is living there.
“The damage is complete,” Ronald Sanders, the Antigua and Barbuda ambassador to the United States, told Public Radio International. “It’s a humanitarian disaster. For the first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda — a civilization that has existed in that island for close to, over 300 years has now been extinguished.”
All 1,800 residents living on Barbuda were forced to evacuate in the wake of Hurricane Irma, a 378-mile-wide storm that smashed nearly every structure on the island, which is only 62 square miles. Most are now staying on Antigua.
“This was a huge monster,” Sanders said. “The island and the people on the island had absolutely no chance.”
It will take around $200 million for Barbuda to recover — and the island won’t be able to rebuild without outside help, he added.
“We are a small island community — the gross domestic product of Antigua is $1 billion a year,” Sanders explained. “We cannot afford to take on this responsibility by ourselves. Barbuda is not just a disaster, it’s a humanitarian crisis. We are hopeful that the international community will come to our aid, not because we’re begging for something we want, but because we’re begging for something that is needed.”
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