French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the Caribbean on Tuesday promising to rebuild the French territories ravaged by Hurricane Irma.
Speaking on the tarmac of the airport at Pointe a Pitre in Guadeloupe, one of France’s overseas territories, Macron defended criticism that France was not prepared.
He pointed out that at the last minute the Category 3 storm they were expecting to land on Guadeloupe turned into a Category 5 and rammed St. Martin instead, 260 kilometers (about 160 miles) away. He plans to visit that beleaguered island later in the day.
“I am here to talk about reconstruction,” he said. “When such a thing happens, life is never the same again. I want to rebuild not just a new life but also a better life.”
Macron said 11 people were killed in the French territories of St. Barts and St. Martin. That brings the death toll of Irma in the Leeward Islands and Cuba to at least 38.
He said France had set up the biggest airlift to mainland France since the Second World War, with 2,000 people having left for the country or another French territory.
Macron stressed that running water and electricity would be back soon in France’s Caribbean territories, and that he hoped schools would be reopened for at least a few hours early next week.
The French President said he plans to go on a patrol tonight with French security forces to see for himself that law and order have been restored following reports of widespread looting.
UK rejects criticism of response
Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is heading to the British overseas territory of Anguilla to offer his support to islanders there, Barbuda and the British Virgin islands, all of which suffered major devastation from the storms. He is expected to land later on Tuesday, the Foreign Office told CNN.
Speaking in the UK Parliament Tuesday, Alan Duncan, secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs, said more than half a million British nationals — both residents and visitors — were caught up in Irma. He said London was working with US, German and Dutch authorities to organize the potential departure of the most vulnerable today.
Replying to criticism that the UK was slow to respond to the disaster, he said: “Our governance system is different from the French: we don’t directly govern, we circulate our troops around different territories. The French have troops permanently stationed there. These troops might not be there at the right time and could have been destroyed whereas ours were flexible.”
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands visited the Dutch side of the island, St. Maarten, on Monday as part of a tour of the region. Soon after arriving, he said: “We’re doing our best to help everybody who needs assistance so have faith in relief efforts.”
Earlier, the Dutch military evacuated residents from the island, including children, to the Netherlands.
St. Martin/St. Maarten is just one of several small islands battered by the storm.
Neighboring islands, including the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and Antigua and Barbuda were all heavily affected by Hurricane Irma.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne estimated around 95% of the buildings on Barbuda had been damaged, if not destroyed.
‘There’s no supplies’
Days after the storm, reports were emerging from St. Martin of food and fuel shortages, as well as a lack of clean water.
Evacuees arriving in the United States spoke of their horror as the hurricane passed overhead and the difficult cleanup that has followed.
“The problem now is there’s no supplies,” one woman told CNN at San Juan airport in Puerto Rico, where evacuees were being taken.
“(We’re missing) gas for vehicles, diesel gas for generators, diesel gas for all the trucks and front loaders needed to clear the rubble.”
The woman, who didn’t give her name before being rushed away by officials, said she was flying with her children back to the US to stay with her sister while her husband looked after their house in St. Martin.
“The biggest problem right now is the lack of communications. People just don’t know what’s happening,” she said.
Newlywed Frances Bradley-Villier said all that was left in St. Martin was “devastation.”
“I’ve never experienced a hurricane before in my life … I can’t even come up with the right words to explain the emotion, the anxiety, just not knowing, the fear,” she said.
Her husband Dominique Vilier told CNN there had been looting and robbing in the wake of the hurricane, which has left them without food and water.
“It’s very terrible right now … I actually had two persons try to break into my house at night the day before yesterday and I had to scare them off,” he said.
European aid arrives
As Macron heads to St. Martin, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb announced that France was currently working on delivering water to affected neighborhoods across the island.
He said food supplies were being provided by 1,500 helpers on the ground in the West Indies, with the number rising to 2,000 over the coming days.
The British foreign secretary said Monday that 700 troops and 50 police had been deployed to parts of the Caribbean, while the HMS Ocean would soon head to the region loaded with emergency supplies.
“We are continuing to deliver aid, including food and water, to where it is needed … (Some) aid has arrived in the region with much more on the way,” Johnson said in a statement.
He added that an effort was underway to restore access to wireless Internet and electricity across the region.
UK billionaire Richard Branson, who rode out the storm in his home in the British Virgin Islands — which President Barack Obama visited when he left the White House — is also rallying relief.
“Tomorrow my son Sam, the team and I will be back in the BVI, helping with supplies distribution in conjunction with the local authorities to support people on the ground,” he wrote on his blog Monday.
He said his airline, Virgin Atlantic, has arranged special relief flights both independently and in conjunction with the UK Department for International Development, to the British Virgin Islands and Antigua — with plans to distribute further aid, building materials, blankets and bottled water over the following week.
The European Union has also committed to providing $2.4 million for emergency relief.