Hurricane Irma: path of devastation in Caribbean as Florida evacuations ordered – live

Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by LefthandedLunatic

Sam Levin here taking over our live coverage of Irma. Hurricane Jose has officially formed in the open mid-Atlantic ocean, heading for the Caribbean.

NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) JUST IN: Hurricane #Jose forms behind Hurricane #Irma in the mid-Atlantic, NHC says. pic.twitter.com/4s2qFJlhTX

Jose poses no immediate threats to land, the US National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday. Jose has winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) and is quickly strengthening, the AP reported, noting that the storm’s path could change.

Hurricane Katia has also formed in the Gulf of the coast of Mexico with 75 mph winds. Officials in Mexico have issued a hurricane watch for the coast of the state of Veracruz from Tuxpan to Laguna Verde, according to the AP. Katia is expected to drift toward the coast on Thursday.

DemHooksOP on September 7th, 2017 at 00:21 UTC »

Antiguan here, a bit late but things are indeed very bad in Barbuda. Antigua got spared heavily but it is clear our sister island was not as fortunate. Everyone is currently doing whatever they can to gather supplies and support for Barbuda but they have a long and difficult road ahead. I am glad that people around the world are paying attention like this, most of the times you cant even see either of our islands on a map.

Update: Word is they will be evacuating those left on Barbuda to shelters in Antigua to begin recovery.

Update 2: As of right now. The Antigua and Barbuda Red Cross would be the main place to donate if you wanted to. http://www.abredcross.org/disaster Thank you to anyone who does. From our islands to wherever you are!

Update 3: Sorry guys...it looks like the link broke from the traffic. I will take that as a good sign. Thanks for those who tried to donate but I dont think they have ever had to handle this sort of traffic before.

mojofac on September 6th, 2017 at 22:24 UTC »

They might be hit by Hurricane Jose (estimated 130 mph windspeeds) in a few days as well.

pipsdontsqueak on September 6th, 2017 at 21:24 UTC »

And things can change just that quickly. Prime Minister Browne of Antigua and Barbuda reports during press conference that more than 90% of structures on the island of Barbuda were destroyed. Over a shaky radio line Browne repeated the phrase “totally demolished” over and over again. There are unconfirmed reports in local media of one casualty.

The Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda is en route to the latter, and much smaller of the two islands, which sustained a direct hit from Irma last night. Amazingly, it has been more than 12 hours since anyone from the island has made any contact with the rest of the world.

Appears their communication infrastructure might be completely gone. Fuck me, this storm is insane. Here's hoping rescue crews get there quickly to help prevent further casualties. I hope it's just the one casualty listed, but based on the reported damage, that would be quite a miracle. Either way, it's going to take years for a proper recovery.