Hurricane Irma continues on destructive path

Hurricane Irma, the potentially catastrophic 5 storm, smashed into the islands of St. Barthlemey and St. Martin after devastating Barbuda when the storm made its first landfall early Wednesday morning.

The Associated Press reported that as the eye of Hurricane Irma passed directly over Barbuda around 2 a.m., phone lines went down under heavy rain and howling winds that sent debris flying as people huddled in their homes or government shelters.

The storm ripped the roof off the island’s police station, forcing officers to seek refuge in the fire station and at the community center that served as an official shelter.

Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua & Barbuda, said the twin-island nation appears to have weathered its brush with Hurricane Irma with no deaths, though he noted that the government had only done a preliminary assessment of Barbuda. There were widespread reports of property damage but he said the nation had prepared well for the storm.

The AP said France sent emergency food and water rations to the French islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy, where Irma ripped off roofs and knocked out all electricity.

The regional authority for Guadeloupe and neighboring islands said the fire station in Saint Barthelemy was flooded by more than 3 feet (1 meter) of water and no rescue vehicles could move. The government headquarters on Saint Martin was partially destroyed.

Irma is moving toward the west-northwest near 26 kilometres per hour, and this general motion is expected to continue for the next couple of days.

On the forecast track, the extremely dangerous core of Irma is moving over portions of the northern Leeward Islands Wednesday morning, move near or over portions of the northern Virgin Islands later on Wednesday, and pass near or just north of Puerto Rico in the afternoon or Wednesday night.              

Maximum sustained winds remain near 295 kilometres per hour with higher gusts.

Some fluctuations in intensity are likely during the next day or two, but Irma is forecast to remain a powerful category 4 or 5 hurricane during the next couple of days.