POINTE-À-PITRE, Guadeloupe — As communications started to be restored to the storm-ravaged islands of the Caribbean, five deaths were reported from the British Virgin Islands, raising the toll across the Caribbean to 25 people as the islands braced for yet another storm set to strike as early as Saturday afternoon.

The new hurricane, Jose, is expected to wreak less damage than Hurricane Irma, whose passage through the eastern Caribbean left a wake of destruction that could take years to settle, leveling 90 percent of the buildings on some islands. But it has created a new problem in an already troubled recovery effort: The impending storm has halted all aid to the most affected areas because of safety concerns.

That will leave thousands of people who are already stranded and stripped of their possessions waiting several more days for much-needed aid. And officials worry that the number of dead could rise, as the full extent of the devastation becomes known.

“I’ve been working in the Caribbean for 10 years, and this is the first time I have seen a situation like this,” said Raphael Hamoir, the emergency coordinator for the French Red Cross in the region. “We are talking about existing devastation from a Category 5 hurricane, and right as we are starting the relief operation, we have another hurricane coming.”</s>Armed looters on the Caribbean island of St Martin are reported to have been taking advantage of the destruction wrought there by Hurricane Irma.

Tourist Michael Auger told ITV News that people had been armed with machetes and that he had heard a woman being held at gunpoint in the hotel room above him.

"There was a woman screaming in the hotel room above us who was being held," he told ITV News via the internet. "We didn't know what to do."

Mr Auger, who weathered the storm on the Caribbean island before being evacuated to Puerto Rico by US military personnel, said that people had pulled together in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.

He said it was only a day later that lawlessness had started to become a problem in the Caribbean territory, home to five-star resorts and a multi-million dollar estate owned by President Donald Trump.

Speaking to FranceInfo, French interior minister Gerard Collomb confirmed that there had been scenes of looting in the aftermath of the hurricane.

France's President Emmanuel Macron will visit the island on Tuesday.

The Caribbean islands of St Martin, St Barts, St Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla were all struck by the hurricane before it moved on to pummel Cuba and later made landfall in Florida.

More than 1,100 police, military officials and others were deployed to St Martin and the nearby French Caribbean territory of St Barts, both of which have been devastated by Hurricane Irma.

On the Dutch side of the island, known a St Maarten, the death toll from the hurricane was raised to four on Sunday, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.</s>Rescues continued in parts of the Caribbean on Friday, after powerful Hurricane Irma swept through the region and left devastation in its wake on the way to Florida.

The hurricane tore off roofs, damaged buildings and brought fearsome storm surges, killing at least 23 people. The storm lashed the Turks & Caicos and brushed the northern coast of Cuba on Friday. And another storm, Hurricane Jose, was approaching the Leeward Islands.

"If you know Barbuda before and what you saw, it's completely destroyed," Michael Joseph, president of the Red Cross in Antigua and Barbuda who was in Barbuda Thursday, said on MSNBC Friday.

An estimated 90 percent of the buildings on Barbuda, population around 1,400, were destroyed when Irma struck. Aided by fishing boats and other private vessels, the government was evacuating residents to its sister island of Antigua ahead of Hurricane Jose.

Irma slammed into the easternmost islands of the Caribbean on Wednesday, before moving on and lashing Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and bringing hurricane-force winds to the Turks & Caicos Islands. The storm also cut power to more than 1 million people in Puerto Rico, which, unlike other islands, was spared a direct hit.

"All these islands are in dire need of help," U.S. Virgin Islands resident Tenesha Keyes said. "We need food. We need water. We need clothes."

Friday evening, the U.S. Coast Guard continued to make it clear that the ports in St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands remained unsafe after Irma made landfall there, and added that those who hoped to provide aid to the battered islands by sea should steer clear.

"We understand the desire to assist people impacted in St. Thomas and St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands," Capt. Eric King, U.S. Coast Guard captain of Port San Juan, in a statement. "At this time port conditions in these areas remain unsafe for vessel traffic, and people who choose to disregard port condition warnings could make a bad situation worse."

The U.S. Coast guard noted that it had cleared many of the ports in Puerto Rico and that there were no active maritime search and rescue cases associated with Hurricane Irma in the immediate area.

French, British and Dutch militaries brought much-needed aid to a string of Caribbean islands where thousands were left homeless and without food and water, the Associated Press reported.

At least four people were killed in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the government said. Three people were dead in Puerto Rico and deaths were also reported in Barbuda, St. Martin and French territories, and St. Maarten. Four people died in the British Virgin Islands and 1 person died in Anguilla, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency said.

The hospital in St. Thomas was destroyed, and the patients were evacuated by the U.S. Coast Guard to St. Croix and Puerto Rico.

"Take it seriously, because this is the real deal," Maj. Jeremy DeHart, a U.S. Air Force Reserve weather officer who flew through the eye of Irma at 10,000 feet, told the Associated Press.

William Marlin, prime minister of the Dutch side of St. Martin, said recovery was expected to take months even before Jose threatened to make things worse.

"We've lost many, many homes. Schools have been destroyed," he said. "We foresee a loss of the tourist season because of the damage that was done to hotel properties, the negative publicity that one would have that it's better to go somewhere else because it's destroyed. So that will have a serious impact on our economy."

Hurricane Jose was a powerful Category 4, almost a Category 5, storm that had 155-mph winds as of 11 p.m. ET Friday. The storm was around 265 miles southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center, and was forecast to be near the northern Leeward Islands on Saturday.

Hurricane warnings were in place for Barbuda and Anguilla, St. Maarten, and the French territories of St. Martin and St. Barts. Forecasters warned that dangerous storm surges and large and destructive waves were possible.</s>CAIBARIEN, Cuba (AP) — Hurricane Irma ripped roofs off houses, collapsed buildings and flooded hundreds of miles of coastline as it raked Cuba’s northern coast after devastating islands the length of the Caribbean in a trail of destruction that has left 22 people dead so far.

As Irma left Cuba and directed its 130 mph (215 kph) winds toward Florida Sunday, authorities on the island were warning of staggering damage to keys along the northern coast studded with all-inclusive resorts and cities, as well as farmland in central Cuba.

There were no immediate reports of deaths in Cuba – a country that prides itself on its disaster preparedness – but authorities were trying to restore power, clear roads and warning that people should stay off the streets of Havana because flooding could continue into Monday.

Residents of “the capital should know that the flooding is going to last more than 36 hours, in other words, it is going to persist,” Civil Defense Col. Luis Angel Macareno said late Saturday, adding that the waters had reach at about 2,000 feet (600 meters) into parts of Havana.

As Irma rolled in, Cuban soldiers went through coastal towns to force residents to evacuate, taking people to shelters at government buildings and schools — and even caves.

Video images from northern and eastern Cuba showed uprooted utility poles and signs, many downed trees and extensive damage to roofs. Witnesses said a provincial museum near the eye of the storm was in ruins. And authorities in the city of Santa Clara said 39 buildings collapsed.

More than 5,000 tourists were evacuated from the keys off Cuba’s north-central coast, where the government has built dozens of resorts in recent years.

Civil Defense official Gregorio Torres said authorities were trying to tally the extent of the damage in eastern Cuba, home to hundreds of rural communities.

In Caibarien, a small coastal city about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Havana, winds downed power lines and a three-block area was under water. Many residents had stayed put, hoping to ride out the storm.

Before slamming into Cuba, Irma had caused havoc in lush Caribbean resorts such as St. Martin, St. Barts, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla.

Many of Irma’s victims fled their battered islands on ferries and fishing boats for fear Hurricane Jose would destroy or drench anything Irma left untouched, but Jose veered away before doing much more damage.

On the Dutch side of St. Martin, an island divided between French and Dutch control, an estimated 70 percent of the homes were destroyed by Irma, according to the Dutch government.

Prime Minister William Marlin said about 1,600 tourists had been evacuated and efforts were being made to move 1,200 more.

Marlin said many countries and people have offered help to St. Maarten, but authorities were waiting on the weather conditions to see how it could be coordinated. Authorities are still trying to determine the extent of damage to the island but he said 28 police officers lost homes during the storms.

The U.S. State Department worked with the Defense Department to help more than 1,200 Americans fly out of the Dutch side of St. Martin, starting with those in need of urgent medical care, spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Carol Basch, a 53-year-old tourist from Savannah, Georgia, took refuge during the storm in the bathroom of her St. Martin hotel room after windows shattered. She stayed there praying for about four hours, surrounding herself with pillows.

“I kept saying, ‘Lord, please stop this, and soon, soon,'” said Basch, who was evacuated to Puerto Rico. “I’m glad I’m alive. I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

France and the Netherlands said their islands in the Caribbean were spared major damage from Jose, which passed farther away from the islands than expected.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded a hurricane warning for Barbuda and Anguilla. A hurricane watch also was discontinued for nearby Antigua.

In a tweet, the Dutch navy said the security situation on St. Maarten, which saw widespread looting and robberies after Hurricane Irma, had improved thanks to patrols by marines and police flown to the island to help overwhelmed local law enforcement.</s>Cuba airlifted six of its dolphins to safety from a Cuban dolphinarium on Friday, before Hurricane Irma lashed the island. The hurricane is one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century to hit the island. Irma continues to wreak havoc in its path, causing massive damage to life and property.

Irma battered the Camaguey Archipelago of Cuba on Saturday, and is likely to hit Florida in the United States as a category five storm by early Sunday morning between 5 am and 7 am ET, according to reports. The powerful storm has claimed 19 lives so far, and has rendered thousands homeless within days.

Reports state that authorities in Cuba wrapped all the six dolphins in wet towels to ensure that they travelled safely in the helicopters, without much discomfort. The marine creatures were then evacuated from the north of the country to the province of Cienfuegos, according to Fox News reports.

The dolphins were later put in a swimming pool for the time being. Officials however have said that they could be moved again once the hurricane subsided.

Dolphinarum manager Gonzalo Carrero Escobar said the pool offered the dolphins "similar conditions to their natural life. However, "If the weather situation does not allow us to keep them there, they will be displaced to the saltwater swimming pool of a hotel," he added.

According to Miami Herald's reports, waves as high as 23 feet slammed into Cuba's eathern towns, causing flooding and power outages in the region. More than 25,000 people were reportedly evacuated from the city before the hurricane hit the area.

"Luckily we have only experienced rains, sea penetrations and some winds ... but sincerely, nothing compared to what we were expecting," a local radio station in Baracoa city wrote on Facebook.

Some of the residents in the hurricane hit Cuba also sought refuge in underground military bunkers as they wait for the storm to die down.

NBC news reported that families waited out the worst of the storm while huddling in blankets and stacking donated food in the dingy caves. These bunkers were built more than 20 years ago, when the Cuban regime feared that it would be attacked by America.

One of Havana's main hospitals, Hermanos Almejeiras, also took precautionary measures and moved all patients to the sixth, seventh and eighth floors of the building ahead of the storm.</s>On September 8, Hurricane Irma made landfall on Cuba as a destructive Category 5 storm, slowly spinning along its northern coast for hours, before turning north toward Florida. The high winds tore roofs from buildings, uprooted trees, toppled power lines, and blocked roads across central and northern Cuba. Coastal towns and cities were swamped by storm surge waters, leaving parts of Havana submerged as Irma moved on. More than a million residents and tourists had been evacuated ahead of the storm, as a precaution. As of Sunday night, there were no storm-related deaths reported in Cuba.</s>Caibarién, Cuba (CNN) Recovery efforts are underway in Cuba a day after Hurricane Irma smashed into the country's north en route towards the Florida Keys .

Hurricane-force winds of 125 mph (over 200 kp/h) whipped roofs clean off buildings, ripped trees from the ground and forced evacuations along the coast.

As Irma made landfall, it once again regained strength to a Category 5 storm, flooding low-lying areas of the capital, Havana.

As dusk fell on Saturday, the churning seas had moved two blocks inland from the city's popular seafront boulevard, with waters expected to permeate further as the surge grew, Reuters reported. So far there have been no reports of deaths in Cuba.

Water battered the city's pier and flooding some low-lying areas of Havana on Saturday.

The Cuban government had prepared by staging emergency supplies and building equipment ahead of the arrival of Irma.

Elsewhere in the Caribbean, the US has evacuated approximately 1,200 Americans from Dutch-administered St. Marteen in the last 24 hours, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Sunday.

The first to be evacuated were those with urgent medical care before flights were suspended due to Hurricane Jose. The State Department said it intends to resume efforts to get US citizens out when it is safe to do so.

There were 24 deaths attributed to Irma throughout the Caribbean.

A hurricane warning remained in place as of 5 a.m. ET on Sunday for the Cuban provinces of Ciego de Avila, Sancti Spiritus, Villa Clara, Matanzas, and La Habana.

The latest advisory from the US National Hurricane Center said that the searing winds and vicious rain conditions would continue in Cuba throughout Sunday morning as the storm barrels through the Florida Keys and towards the United States mainland.

Irma's blinding rain and powerful winds began pummeling Caibarién, a small coastal city about 320 kilometres east of Havana, late Friday as the outer bands of the massive storm knocked out power in a town that normally would be busy with tourists.

By dawn Saturday, waves were rolling down the town's main street, and within hours the whole town was flooded with several feet of water.

Most people in the coastal area live in one-story homes, putting them at great risk as floodwaters rose to roof level in some places. Residents were overwhelmed by the damage and said recovery will take time.

Many people had left town over the past couple of days, with all foreigners urged to evacuate. Those who remained were prepared, though they knew this was a storm like few had ever experienced, they told CNN.

Elsewhere in the country, Irma struck the archipelago north of Cuba's Camaguey and Ciego de Avila provinces with gusts so strong they destroyed an instrument used to measure wind, Cuba's meteorological agency reported.

Hurricane-strength winds later were recorded in the northern half of Camaguey province, the agency said.

As Irma advanced over neighboring Ciego de Avila province, waves of between 16-and 23 feet waves (5 to 7 meters) were recorded.

Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to hit Camaguey in 85 years, according to the province's state media radio station.

In the resort town of Varadero in the Matanzas province, 14,500 foreign tourists rode out the storm, according to state-run news organization Granma.

A string of small Caribbean islands was left reeling by Irma. Many islands were still assessing the damage, even as they prepared for the arrival of another major storm, Hurricane Jose.

Of the 24 deaths blamed on Irma in the Caribbean, nine were in various French territories, one in Barbuda, one in Anguilla, two in St. Maarten, four in the British Virgin Islands, four in the US Virgin Islands, and three in Puerto Rico.

Antigua, Barbuda's sister island and home to about 80,000 people, was spared the brunt of the storm. Many residents there have been evacuated ahead of Jose.

Looting broke out on the island, home to about 72,000 people, and security forces were deployed to deal with the problem, French and Dutch authorities said Friday.

Irma caused roughly 1.2 billion euros ($1.44 billion) of insured damage in the French portion of St. Martin and in St. Barts, French state-owned insurer CCR said Saturday.

"This amount covers damages to homes, vehicles and businesses (including operating losses) that are covered by the natural disaster compensation scheme," CCR said.

Just to the north, Anguilla, a 90-square kilometer island that is among several British overseas territories in the Caribbean, "received the hurricane's full blast," according to UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister Alan Duncan.

"Apart from the structural damage, there have sadly been reports of casualties and fatalities," he said. "I am truly heartbroken by this news."

Puerto Rico, an unincorporated US territory, managed to avoid a direct hit from Irma but suffered strong winds and torrential rains. Hundreds of thousands of people remained without power on Friday.

Strong winds and heavy rain also lashed the Dominican Republic, Haiti and the low-lying Turks and Caicos Islands Thursday into Friday. The Turks and Caicos' capital island of Grand Turk suffered "quite a bit of damage," including to part of a hospital's roof, Gov. John Freeman told CNN on Friday.</s>Powerful Hurricane Irma made landfall in Cuba early Saturday morning as it plows northwest toward the Florida Keys, whipping the central city of Camagüey with 155-mile-per-hour winds, damaging property and knocking out communications in some parts of the island nation.

The massive storm hit as a Category 5 hurricane, and weakened overnight to Category 3 by late morning Saturday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

It is not clear whether Irma will hit Havana directly before moving north. The storm is expected to regain strength over the warm waters of the Florida Straits.

Cuba’s Civil Defense Ministry issued a state of alarm for the northwestern provinces of La Habana, Mayabeque, and Artemisa, which include the country’s capital and the port of Mariel.

As of midmorning Saturday, no deaths had been reported in Cuba as a result of the storm. Cuban authorities evacuated 10,000 tourists from the beaches of Cuba’s north coast ahead of the storm and set up dozens of shelters in schools and even in Cold War-era tunnels dug in anticipation of a U.S. invasion of the Communist island nation, according to local media.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Irma could cause life-threatening storm surges and dump 10 to 15 inches of rain on Cuba’s north coast, which could cause mudslides. On Saturday morning, Radio Guantanamo reported that the northeastern Cuban town of Yateras had been cut off from transportation because surging river waters had blocked roads.

Another storm, Hurricane Katia, hit the Mexican state of Veracruz on the Gulf coast early Saturday. Two people died in mudslides in the Mexican city of Xalapa after it was battered by high winds and heavy rains from the remnants of Katia. The details of the incident are not clear, but a spokeswoman for Mexico’s Civil Protection force said authorities believe the deaths were the result of falling trees. Katia weakened quickly after it hit and is now a tropical depression.

Meanwhile, the Leeward Islands to the east, still recovering from the battering they received from Irma over the last two days, hastily prepared for Hurricane Jose, a Category 4 storm with 145-mile-per-hour winds that was moving quickly westward from the Atlantic.

Marvio Cooks has been regularly posting live updates to Facebook from the Divi Little Bay Beach Resort on the Dutch island territory of St. Maarten.

Communicating with The Wall Street Journal through voice messages on the WhatsApp messaging service, he said Friday evening that many on the island are getting news about Hurricane Jose by listening to a local radio station with battery-powered devices. Most lack power and access to the internet in the area, and people are rationing gas in order to keep generators running for the next few days.

Mr. Cooks grew up in St. Maarten and works for the local Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor. He said several shelters were damaged in Hurricane Irma, but local military are directing people toward additional shelters, along with food and water. Through Facebook Live posts, he has been connecting people in search of family members and relaying information about conditions on the ground.

David Zipkin, co-founder of Tradewind Aviation, which operates flights between Puerto Rico and several Caribbean islands, said his company was the first to land on the island of St. Barthelemy Friday morning.

He said his pilots found severely damaged infrastructure on the French island. Water and electrical plants were inoperable, as well as most phone and internet service. Half of the homes had damaged roofs, and many roads were inaccessible because of downed trees, he said.

Tradewind did five round-trip flights on two planes Friday, evacuating residents and visitors who had injuries or were elderly and in need of medical attention. The arrival of Hurricane Jose has added stress to an already bleak situation, he said.

“They’re hearing about Jose, but they don’t have internet, they barely have phone,” Mr. Zipkin said. “They’re just scared, and a lot of their houses are compromised, so they don’t know if they can handle it.”

The prime minister of St. Maarten, William Marlin, took to the local radio station on Saturday morning to declare a state of emergency and to call on locals to stay indoors, according to Dutch newswire ANP. Under the state of emergency, security forces can arrest suspected looters more easily.

Dutch security forces and aid workers are helping the population of St. Maarten prepare for Hurricane Jose, which is expected to sweep close to the island on Saturday, said Frank Wassenaar, a spokesman for the Dutch ministry of interior.

Only medical patients are being evacuated from the island on military planes to Aruba and Curaçao, Mr. Wassenaar said. “You can’t evacuate 40,000 people on the island,” he said.

Communications have been nearly impossible with local police and government officials in Turks and Caicos, which also took a hard hit from Irma on Thursday and overnight into Friday.

Charles Mathurin, a photographer who lives on the island, shared photos with The Wall Street Journal via Facebook showing downed trees and power lines, damaged churches and hotels and widespread flooding of highways and the airport at Providenciales, the island chain’s main point of entry.

A spokesman for the U.K.’s Met Office, the national weather service, said communication had been difficult with Turks and Caicos, which is a British territory. It was unclear Saturday whether the island territory had experienced any loss of life.

“A total shutdown of the island has been ordered by the authorities,” the spokesman said. "Details seem to be vague, but it’s not looking good.”

Officials from CCR, France’s state-owned reinsurance company, said Saturday that the damage in St. Martin—a French territory that shares an island with St. Maarten—and St. Barthelemy could cost insurance companies EUR1.2 billion. This estimate of damage covers homes, vehicles and businesses covered by natural disaster insurance.

The islands are bracing for another hit. France’s interior ministry said early Saturday that it expects Hurricane Jose to pass within about 60 miles of the islands, bringing winds as much as 90 miles an hour and swells of up to 20 feet.

—Valentina Pop, Matthew Dalton, Chris Kirkham and Sam Schechner contributed to this article.</s>REMEDIOS, Cuba (Reuters) – Hurricane Irma pounded Cuba’s northern coast on Saturday as it headed for Florida, where millions of residents were told to evacuate after the storm killed 22 people in the Caribbean and left devastation in its wake.</s>CAIBARIEN, Cuba (AP) — Irma collapsed buildings and battered Cuba with deafening winds and relentless rain Saturday, while a second hurricane, Jose, threatened to lash already-reeling islands elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Across a swath of Cuba, utility poles were toppled, trees uprooted and roads blocked. Witnesses said a provincial museum near the eye of the storm was in ruins. And authorities in the city of Santa Clara said 39 buildings collapsed.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Cuba in addition to the 22 dead left in Irma’s wake across the Caribbean, where the storm ravaged such lush resort islands as St. Martin, St. Barts, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla.

Many of Irma’s victims fled their battered islands on ferries and fishing boats for fear Jose would destroy or drench anything Irma left untouched.

On the Dutch side of St. Martin, an island divided between French and Dutch control, an estimated 70 percent of the homes were destroyed by Irma, according to the Dutch government. Officials said Jose was forecast to dump more rain on the island’s buildings, many of which lost their roofs to Irma.

The U.S. State Department helped more than 500 Americans fly out of St. Martin, starting with those in need of urgent medical care, said spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

Carol Basch, a 53-year-old tourist from Savannah, Georgia, took refuge during the storm in the bathroom of her St. Martin hotel room after windows shattered. She stayed there praying for about four hours, surrounding herself with pillows.

“I kept saying, ‘Lord, please stop this, and soon, soon,'” said Basch, who was evacuated to Puerto Rico. “I’m glad I’m alive. I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

Some islands received a last-minute reprieve from Jose as it passed by.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center downgraded a hurricane warning for Barbuda and Anguilla. A hurricane watch also was discontinued for nearby Antigua.

By late Saturday afternoon, Irma passed Cuba and slowly chugged toward Florida with winds of 125 mph (205 kmh). Jose was 85 miles (135 kilometers) northeast of the Leeward Islands, with winds of 145 mph (230 kmh).

As Irma rolled in, Cuban soldiers went through coastal towns to force people to evacuate, taking people to shelters at government buildings and schools — and even caves.

Video images from northern and eastern Cuba showed uprooted utility poles and signs, many downed trees and extensive damage to roofs.

Eastern Cuba, a major sugarcane-growing area and home to many poor, rural communities, faced a staggering recovery, with its economy in tatters even before the storm hit due to years of neglect and lack of investment.

Civil Defense official Gergorio Torres said authorities were trying to tally the extent of the damage, which appeared concentrated in banana-growing areas.

More than 5,000 tourists were evacuated from the keys off Cuba’s north-central coast, where the government has built dozens of all-inclusive resorts in recent years.

In Caibarien, a small coastal city about 200 miles (320 kilometers) east of Havana, winds downed power lines and a three-block area was under water. Many residents stayed put, hoping to ride out the storm.

Looting was reported on St. Martin. Curfews were imposed there and on St. Barts, and French and Dutch authorities announced plans to send hundreds more troops and police to keep order.

French President Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity has been sinking over unpopular domestic policies, held an emergency meeting as he came under criticism from stranded residents in the country’s Caribbean territories. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who lost the presidential election in May, accused the government of having “totally insufficient” emergency and security measures.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe insisted that the government’s support for Irma’s victims isn’t “empty words” and that it was “completely mobilized” to rescue and rebuild.

It was not immediately known whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s luxury property on St. Martin had been damaged.

On Anguilla, Vanessa Croft Thompson crammed into her home’s laundry room with her husband, her best friend and their children along with their cats and dogs, as Irma’s floodwaters swamped her house. The storm peeled off her roof, rained water inside, and sheared paint from her walls.

“Our hurricane-proof door was bending in, it was warping … and the entire house was shaking like it was an earthquake,” she said.

Thompson, the head of the English department at Anguilla’s only high school, said: “I don’t even know something that’s not destroyed. There’s nothing here that hasn’t been ripped apart by Irma.”

Rodriguez reported from Havana. Associated Press writers Michael Weissenstein in Havana; Ben Fox in Miami; Ian Brown in St. Thomas, U.S Virgin Islands; Danica Coto in San Juan, Puerto Rico; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Alina Hartounian in Phoenix; Thomas Adamson and Angela Charlton in Paris; and Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report.
Hurricane Irma makes landfall in Cuba. The death toll across the Caribbean is at least 25 people, (CNN) (The New York Times)