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Irma, Strongest Atlantic Hurricane on Record, Devastates Caribbean

HeadlineSep 07, 2017

In the Caribbean, at least 10 people are dead after Hurricane Irma, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, brought devastation to small islands as it barreled toward the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and South Florida. The eye of the Category 5 storm struck the islands of Saint Martin and Anguilla Wednesday with sustained winds of 185 miles an hour, leveling more than 90 percent of all structures. On Barbuda, the prime minister declared the island “practically uninhabitable” and warned the entire population may need to be evacuated, as another storm—Hurricane Jose—could strike over the weekend. In Puerto Rico, more than a million people have lost power, as authorities warned some areas could be dark for up to six months, partly because the island’s electrical infrastructure has gone neglected due to Puerto Rico’s debt crisis. In Haiti, hundreds of residents of a tent city in the capital Port-au-Prince who were left homeless after a 2010 earthquake appealed to the government for shelter from the approaching storm.

Barthelemy Jeffline: “I have no place to go. I have to stay here. I will live or die, depending on how this storm hits us. If God wants to help us, he will. But we have no place to go.”

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