Hurricane Irma ’s Damage Could Cost Us $300 Million, Antigua and Barbuda PM Says

The cost of rebuilding the Caribbean island of Barbuda left in ruins by Hurricane Irma could be as much as $300 million, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda has warned. He urged the international community to come to the aid of islands severely hit by the Category 5 storm. “We require probably about $250-300 million,” Prime Minister Gaston Browne told TIME in an interview in Antigua on Tuesday. “The extent of the damage is beyond the means of these islands … Global human cooperation is an absolute necessity.” The dual-island state of Antigua and Barbuda was one of the first places where Hurricane Irma made landfall, with winds of up to 185 mph. As a coral island just a few feet above sea level, Barbuda had few natural barriers to break the impact of the winds. As a result, some 95% of the structures on the island about the size of Nantucket were either damaged or destroyed. Its infrastructure is in pieces and its population of 1,800 are now homeless and scattered around a number of shelters across Antigua, which escaped the worst of the storm’s impact. Rebuilding homes and infrastructure could take at least six months, officials said. Antigua and Barbuda is just one of the island nations and territories ravaged by Irma. The British Virgin Islands and St Martin, the island shared by the Dutch and the French, also saw catastrophic damage. Browne said the costs to repair St Martin could top $1 billion. “I don’t think there i...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized antigua and barbuda hurricane irma Source Type: news