Bibee Zuhoorun’s testimony paints a picture of deception, ill-treatment and injustice.
Bibee Zuhoorun was one of 13 lakh Indian labourers recruited in Caribbean and Indian Ocean sugar plantations after slave labour was abolished in the British Empire. She migrated to Mauritius in the 1830s and on her return to India, testified in an official inquiry committee set up to investigate transgressions in the Indian indenture trade.
As the earliest voice of female indentured labourers, Zuhoorun’s testimony offers a rare insight into early migration – painting a story of deception, ill-treatment and injustice.
In Calcutta, she was persuaded by a labour-recruiter to travel to Mauritius and work as a servant. After her departure, however, she realised she had been deceived: “I got no clothes given to me, nor blankets, nor brass pots”. Nor did she receive the quality of wages, or the six-month wage advance that the recruiter had promised.
In Mauritius, she spoke of the injustice meted out to fellow labourers – a story of overworked men subjected to ill-treatment and corporal punishment. Labourers were often confined within plantations and denied wages if they refused to work. She felt stuck in a foreign land with no means of returning to her homeland, urging “every one would leave if there was a land journey; not one would advise any of their friends to go there”.
Zuhoorun’s testimony attested to the gendered experience of indentured migrants. While men tended to cultivate and process sugar, women often worked in the households of plantation-owners. Zuhoorun testified to “making salt, climbing tamarind trees to pick them, sweeping the house, and cutting grass for cattle”. She even learnt French to communicate with her French “master”.
Her testimony also highlighted instances of sexual harassment and the expectation of sexual favours – a common occurrence in plantations. Zuhoorun complained that her plantation-owner Dr Boileau asked her to be his mistress.
She refused, saying “I have degraded myself by going on board ship; I would not further degrade myself’’. Her attempts to complain to the police were met with a three-month stint at a house of correction, and then a return to Boileau’s house, where she was beaten and harassed further. Eventually, she decided to return to India before the end of her five-year contract, even if it meant not receiving any wages for her 2.5 years of service.
Zuhoorun’s bitterness towards the indenture system is evident in her testimony. She urged: “I would not return to Mauritius on any account; it is a country of slaves; […] I would rather beg my bread here”.
Overseas migration had also damaged her social position. She implored, “even my mother will not drink water from my hand or eat with me”; a sign of social ostracization tied to a taboo on crossing the Indian Ocean.
Indian and Chinese Indentured Labourers in British Guiana. Image from Edward Jenkins, The Coolie, His Rights and Wrongs (1871) from Wikimedia commons
Zuhoorun’s story is not just one of tragedy, injustice and violence, but also strength and resilience. She not only resisted Boileau’s advances and ended her contract early, but even complained to his wife, sacrificing her livelihood at the same time.
Although relegated to the footnotes of history, her testimony remains the earliest account of a female indentured migrant, characterised by its strength, detail and passionate criticism of the indenture system.
Further reading:
Read the testimonies of Zuhoorun and other indentured migrants in Letter from Secretary to Government of India to Committee on Exportation of Hill Coolies: Report of Committee and Evidence. Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons) 1841, Vol. 16, No. 45.
Discover the life stories of indentured labourers -
Hurricane Maria killed more than 4,600 people in Puerto Rico, 70 times the official toll, according to estimates in a Harvard University study.
A third of deaths after September's hurricane were due to interruptions in medical care caused by power cuts and broken road links, researchers say.
The Puerto Rico government said it "always expected the number to be higher than what was previously reported".
The official death toll stands at 64.
But experts say an accurate count was complicated by the widespread devastation wreaked by the storm.
The official death toll stands at 64
Carlos Mercader from Puerto Rico's Federal Affairs Administration said he welcomed the Harvard survey.
"The magnitude of this tragic disaster caused by Hurricane Maria resulted in many fatalities," he said.
He added that the island's authorities had also commissioned George Washington University to study the number of deaths and these findings would be released soon.
"Both studies will help us better prepare for future natural disasters and prevent lives from being lost," he said.
The Harvard researchers said interviews conducted in Puerto Rico suggested a 60% increase in mortality in the three months after the storm.
They contacted more than 3,000 randomly selected households between January and March this year and asked about displacement, infrastructure loss and causes of death.
Were deaths preventable?
Aleem Maqbool, BBC News, Washington
Many Puerto Ricans we spoke to felt their immense suffering after the hurricane had been trivialised and that the emergency response has been lacklustre.
A relatively small number of people may have been killed by the physical impact of the storm, but six months later we met people who had lost relatives as a result of interrupted medical care and saw others struggling to pay for expensive generators on which they were running vital life support equipment.
There was also reported to have been a spike in the number of suicides. We found many still without homes and thousands who had been living without electricity since the day Hurricane Maria struck.
Whatever the true number of those killed as a result of the storm, it is now certain to be many times the official figure. The question for US authorities about Puerto Rico, an American territory, is how many of those deaths could have been prevented with a better emergency response?
They then compared their results with the official mortality rates for the same period in 2016, more than a year before the hurricane struck the island.
The researchers said that interrupted medical care was the "primary cause of sustained high mortality rates in the months after the hurricane".
Disruption to health care was a "growing contributor to both morbidity and mortality" in natural disasters, they said, because growing numbers of patients had chronic diseases and used sophisticated equipment that relied on electricity.
On Twitter, several users noted that the death toll exceeds the nearly 3,000 Americans that were killed during the 9/11 attacks.
The mayor of San Juan, the largest city in Puerto Rico, tweeted that "the negligence that contributed to [the deaths] cannot be forgotten.
Carmen Yulin Cruz added that the death toll is "a violation of our human rights".
Hurricane Maria caused the largest blackout in US history, according to research consultancy the Rhodium Group.
There have also been repeated power cuts since then, including an island-wide one in April, nearly seven months after the hurricane.
Overall, Hurricane Maria caused losses of $90bn (£68bn), the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) said.
The Caribbean island is home to 3.4 million US citizens.
Earlier tsunami threat to Puerto Rico and the US and British Virgin Islands is cancelled after powerful and shallow quake.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 that struck in the Caribbean sea on Tuesday was felt across northern Central America, briefly prompting a tsunami warning for disaster-hit Puerto Rico and the British and US Virgin Islands.
The US Tsunami Center later cancelled the alert but warned some parts of Honduras and Belize were still at risk from waves of up to a metre.
The quake – which hit at 10.52pm local time – rattled windows in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa roughly 323 miles (519km) to the east and was felt at least as far north as the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, but no damage was immediately reported.
A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in central America has led to a tsunami warning for Puerto Rico, and the US and British Virgin Islands. Photograph: US Tsunami Warning Center
Rodrigo Anaya Rodriguez was in a hammock inside his house near popular tourist site Bacalar Lake on Mexico’s Caribbean coast in Quintana Roo when he felt three tremors. “It felt like a bulldozer was driving past,” he said. “It didn’t last long but was very violent.” He ran to his balcony and saw electricity posts and cables swaying.
In Honduras, firefighters said some residents in southern neighborhoods fled their homes after feeling the tremors. “We have reports that it was felt in the majority of the country, but we don’t have reports of damage,” said Lizandro Rosales, director of Honduras’ contingencies commission.
The US Geological Survey said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.8, was centered 125 miles (202km) north-east of Barra Patuca in Honduras and 191 miles (307km) south-west of George Town in the Cayman Islands.
The quake was very shallow, at only 6.2 miles (10km), which would have amplified its effect. It was lightly felt in Belize’s capital, Belize City, but did not prompt immediate reports of damage.
Belize’s minister in charge of emergency management, Edmond Castro, spoke on local radio to urge people living in low lying coastal areas and islands to stay alert for potentially dangerous waves.
The eye of the “potentially catastrophic” Hurricane Maria was nearing St Croix on Tuesday evening, with Puerto Rico in its crosshairs.
Maria was 30 miles south-southeast of St Croix late Tuesday evening, and about 120 miles southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
It was expected to reach southeastern Puerto Rico Wednesday morning.
Maria’s maximum sustained winds were near 175 miles per hour with higher gusts; the storm was forecast to remain an “extremely dangerous” category 4 or 5 storm as it moved near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
The National Hurricane Center said storm surges would lead to major flooding, with water expected to reach between six and nine feet above ground in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands if peak surged occurred at high tide.
The projected path of Maria
A Hurricane Warning is now in effect for the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra, Vieques and the portion of the Dominican Republic between Cabo Engano and Puerto Plata.
There were also tropical storm warnings in effect for Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten, according to the NOAA.
The storm had already caused significant damage in Dominica that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit called “mind-boggling.”
Although the extent was not yet clear, there were unconfirmed reports of six deaths on the island, which was now experiencing a communications blackout.
Guadeloupe was also hit hard, with at least one dead and two people missing and widespread flooding.
Neighboring Martinique had what officials termed limited damage, however.
It’s the second severe hurricane to hit the Caribbean this month, after Hurricane Irma devastated much of the Virgin Islands, St Maarten and St Barth. (Source: Caribjournal)
Hurricane Maria made landfall on the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica on Monday night as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour, according to the NOAA’s National Hurricane Center.
The storm had already caused “significant damage to structures” in Dominica.
“So, far the winds have swept away the roofs of almost every person I have spoken to or otherwise made contact with. The roof to my own official residence was among the first to go and this apparently triggered an avalanche of torn away roofs in the city and the countryside,” said Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
Skerrit had posted on Facebook that his home lost its roof and then flooded, although he was eventually rescued.
“We do not know what is happening outside. We not dare look out. All we are hearing is the sound of galvanize flying. The sound of the fury of the wind. As we pray for its end!” he posted during the storm.
The storm brought immense winds and dangerous storm surges that could raise water levels by as much as 7 to 11 feet above normal tide levels, along with as much as 20 inches of rain.
Maria was about 85 miles west of Guadeloupe and about 170 miles southeast of St Croix on Tuesday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour.
The storm was moving west-northwest at around 9 miles per hour, with the eye of Maria expected to approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Guadeloupe, Dominica, St Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Culebra and Vieques.
Tropical storm warnings were in effect for Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St Eustatius, St Maarten, Anguilla, St Lucia and Martinique.
The eye of Maria was expected to move over the northeastern Caribbean sea on Tuesday and then approach the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Tuesday night and Wednesday.
Some fluctuations are expected in the next day or two, according to the National Hurricane Center, but Maria is forecast to remain an extremely dangerous storm as it heads toward Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Hurricane Maria is forecast to rapidly strengthen over the next two days as it takes aim at Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma just days ago.
"Significant strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Maria is expected to become a dangerous major hurricane before it moves through the Leeward Islands," according to the National Hurricane Center's latest update.
In its 5 a.m. update, the hurricane center placed Maria about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Martinique and about 130 miles (215 east-southeast) of Dominica.
The storm is currently a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 90 mph, and is forecast to continue moving toward the eastern Caribbean at 13 mph.
"Maria is likely to be at category 3 or 4 intensity by the time it moves into the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea," the center said in its forecast.
Hurricane Maria is expected to keep strenghening as it heads toward the Caribbean
Maria is one of three storms churning in the Atlantic Ocean, but it poses the most danger to the hurricane-battered Caribbean.
"On the forecast track, the center of Maria will move across the Leeward Islands late today (Monday) and tonight and then over the extreme northeastern Caribbean Sea Tuesday and Tuesday night," the NHC said.
Maria has prompted a hurricane warning for Martinique, Guadeloupe, Dominica, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for Antigua and Barbuda, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Lucia. A warning is typically issued 36 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds.
A hurricane watch has now been extended to Puerto Rico and its islands Vieques and Culebra. A watch was earlier put in place for the US Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands, St. Maarten/St. Martin, St. Barthelemy and Anguilla -- many of which were devastated when Irma blew through the Caribbean, killing 44 people. A hurricane watch is typically issued 48 hours before the anticipated first occurrence of tropical-storm-force winds.
Torrential rainfall could cause deadly flash flooding and mudslides on islands that it crosses. Maria could dump 6 to 12 inches of rain across the Leeward Islands -- including Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands -- through Wednesday night.
Hurricane Jose
Meanwhile, Hurricane Jose has weakened slightly as it churns north, but is sill threatening "dangerous surf and rip currents" along the US East Coast in the next few days, the hurricane center said.
Early Monday, the Category 1 hurricane was about 280 miles (450 kilometers) east-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving north at 9 mph.
"Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 85 mph (140 km/h) with higher gusts. Some gradual weakening is expected during the next couple of days, however, Jose is forecast to remain a hurricane through Tuesday," the NHC said.
While the center of Jose is expected to stay off from the US East Coast, "swells generated by Jose are affecting Bermuda, the Bahamas, and much of the US east coast," the NHC said.
"These swells are likely to cause dangerous surf and rip current conditions for the next several days in these areas."
Tropical storm watches are in place for portions of the eastern coast of the US stretching between Delaware and Massachusetts.
The hurricane center said that Jose would produce heavy rain as it passes near southern New England and the mid-Atlantic on Tuesday and Wednesday, but that based on current forecasting the risk of flooding would be "limited in scope."
Tropical Depression Lee
Lee, the third storm in the Atlantic, fizzled from a tropical storm to a tropical depression Sunday, the hurricane center said.
As of Monday morning, Lee was about 1,060 miles (1,710 kilometers) west of Cape Verde.
Lee's maximum sustained winds have sputtered to 35 mph, and are expected to further weaken in the coming days.
Even in our rational society, the wind is an unseen monster that has a timeless hold on our imagination – rather than the results of human transgressions, writes Philip Hoare, the author of Leviathan or, The Whale; The Sea Inside; and RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR, in the Guardian. Read on:
The strange and terrible news from our meteorological world seems to collide ominously in our unsettling times. Last week a scientific report was published, indicating that the remarkable and tragic stranding of 29 sperm whales on North Sea coasts last January may have been caused by solar storms that confused the animals’ geomagnetic navigation – and drove them on to shallow beaches to die.
Meanwhile, the second apocalyptic weather event in as many weeks struck the Caribbean and the southern US. Even in our supposedly rational world, it is hard not to see these natural disasters as omens. Great whales dying because of the same solar activity that has sparked the beautiful but eerie curtains of northern lights in our skies.
‘The wind is the sound of the world’s motion, as if the invisible spinning of the globe had suddenly become tangible. For what sins are we being punished?’ Hurricane Irma hits the Dominican Republic Photograph: Luis Tavarez/EPA
From creation myths to The Tempest, storms and sacrifices and signs go hand in hand with the way we try to understand our chaotic world. They wreak havoc – with lives, with political careers (witness George W Bush’s inept response to Hurricane Katrina). The modern expression “weather bomb” takes on an awful meaning. In his recent book Sea of Storms, the US academic Stuart B Schwartz observes that the uber-storms of the 21st century have a new power over us. “In a way, the hurricanes and how societies deal with them have become symbolic of competing world views.” East and west, north and south: the new world order encompassed by compass points.
We account for disaster not in our own culpability as drivers of climate change and instigators of the Anthropocene, but in dreams and myths and faith. It is the sense of the unseen and the unpredictable that disturbs us. In the storms of 2014 that raked the soft southern coast of England – vulnerable shores lacking the rocky bulwarks of Cornwall, Wales or Scotland – we seemed to have been taken by surprise. Used to experiencing the world through the manipulable screens in our hands, those swirling patterns graphically represented in the nightly weather forecast had become vividly, dangerously alive.
At least the sea is visible in its rage; the wind is an unseen monster. You do not hear the wind; you hear what it leaves in its wake. Its sound is defined by the shape of everything else – trees, buildings, waves; by what gets in its way. Perhaps that’s why it preys on our imagination so disturbingly. It is the sound of the world’s motion, as if the invisible spinning of the globe had suddenly become tangible; a world blown out of kilter. For what sins are we being punished? What have we done wrong? In Caribbean hurricanes during the 17th century, Spanish priests would toss crucifixes into the waves or hold the Host up into the wind, for fear that the transgressions of their flocks were responsible for God’s displeasure. The contemporary equivalent is the virally popular social media call from Ryon Edwards for his fellow Floridians to shoot at Irma - “LET’S SHOW IRMA THAT WE SHOOT FIRST” - despite warnings that their bullets would fall to earth, with fatal results.
‘Hurricane Katrina was an augury of the end for George W Bush. Who knows what these new storms will hold in store for our world leaders?’ Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Sometimes it seems we have not moved far from such superstitious gestures at the elemental. In 1520 the German artist Albrecht Dürer travelled to the half-land, half-sea coast of Zeeland in the Netherlands, in search of a stranded whale. It had disappeared by the time he reached the location, but instead he caught a fever that would eventually take his life. That whale, whose demise we might now scientifically ascribe to astronomical forces, became aligned in Dürer’s mind with the omens he saw in the skies: comets and other phenomena that echoed or even predicted European fortunes, good or bad. The genderless angel in his celebrated engraving Melencolia I, looks up at just such a comet. Dürer sought to rationalise, even as he aestheticised, the natural world.
Yet we still anthropomorphise the elements. We name “weather events” – storm Doris, hurricane Irma – as if to bring them into our dominion. Donald Trump creates a supposedly reassuring narrative by expressing his awe – “Hurricane looks like largest ever recorded in the Atlantic!” – as if a 140 character tweet will magically extend his power over the storm, like the Wizard of Oz, even as he denies our responsibility for it. His gesture is no more effective, perhaps even less so, than those Caribbean priests holding up their Hosts against the wind, or the call to shoot at Irma. Hurricane Katrina was an augury of the end for George W Bush. Who knows what these new storms will hold in store for our world leaders?
'We are beyond saddened to learn of the devastation in Barbuda caused from Hurricane Irma,' the actor said in a statement.
Barbuda has faced unfathomable devastation in the face of Hurricane Irma, the most powerful Atlantic Ocean storm recorded in history.
Around 90% of the nation's structures and vehicles have been destroyed, killing at least one person, Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne stated. It's left the island "barely habitable", with 60% of Barbuda's 1,600 residents left homeless.
Robert De Niro, who owns the soon-to-be Paradise Found Nobu resort in Barbuda, has expressed his concerns for the island and the welfare of its people, vowing to rebuild the island, which lies roughly 250 miles east of Puerto Rico.
"We are beyond saddened to learn of the devastation in Barbuda caused from Hurricane Irma and look forward to working with the Paradise Found Nobu team, the Barbuda Council, GOAB and the entire Barbuda community to successfully rebuild what nature has taken away from us," De Niro said in a statement obtained by New York Daily News.
De Niro and billionaire James Packer had bought the former K Club Resort on Barbuda last year but had yet to begin construction on the property; their original proposal faced controversy with the island's residents, who legally have ownership of all land in Barbuda and a right to vote on all proposals.
Brown told local TV news station ABS Television Radio that any rebuilding initiative will take "years" after inspecting the damage. He has also stated that residents should be evacuated if the second hurricane, Jose, turns toward the island later this week; it's forecast to become a major storm and pass close to the island on Saturday.
The Caribbean poor might have been devastated by disaster, but their islands also host huge global wealth, writes Mariana Mazzucato, professor in the economics of innovation and public value, UCL, in the Guardian. Read on:
Did you see the image of Richard Branson, hiding with his friends and family in his expensive wine cellar on his private Caribbean island, tweeting that it felt like a fun slumber party from his youth? This while Hurricane Irma tore through the houses and lives of others in the region, offering a stark illustration of the way so-called natural events affect people of different socioeconomic classes in radically different ways.
Architects and urban planners call this “spatial inequality”. People living close to each other, whether in New York, London or on a Caribbean island, will experience life completely differently depending on the resources and opportunities they have available to them, determined principally by their economic and class background.
Indeed, modern inequality increasingly reveals itself through the divergence of income and opportunities at a local level: the inequality between people living across London postcodes can be almost as large as those between average incomes in developed and developing countries. So a “natural” disaster (worsened by climate change factors) becomes a socioeconomic one, in the same way that the banking crisis, a manmade disaster, affected people differently.
Last week, after Hurricane Irma stormed the Caribbean, Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, appealed to the world, saying that 90% of buildings had been destroyed and 50% of the population was homeless. He criticised those “irresponsible leaders” denying climate change, when it was obvious to him that it was a key factor in the severity of the recent hurricanes. Now a second hurricane, Jose, is coming his way and he is trying to force residents of Barbuda to evacuate. Similarly, the French part of Saint Martin has been virtually destroyed, while two-thirds of the population of Puerto Rico is without power and 17% without water. Although it was slow to respond, the UK government has contributed £12m to the relief effort in the Caribbean, including a naval ship.
Browne called me in 2016 because he had read my book, The Entrepreneurial State, and wanted to know more about the various instruments that might be used to get back some value from investments that the Antigua and Barbuda government had made in the tourism industry. And would it be possible, he asked, for such future public investments to be conditional on the tourism industry ploughing back profits into public funds used for development? In this way, the taxpayers who propped up tourism could also benefit from reinvestments into areas such as health, education and transport for all.
The aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Barbuda. Photograph: Anika E. Kentish/AP
Since you’re here …
While some may cynically dismiss this question, raising concerns about corruption of public finances in poor countries, the question Browne asked, even before the hurricane hit, was a good one: how should those extracting value from a place contribute to it?
But the questions are complicated and perhaps even uncomfortable for those asking them. The relief efforts needed are larger than they should be due to how these countries have been starved of tax revenue precisely because they have chosen to be tax havens.
The simpler question is to ask those “elites” who save billions by using tax shelters in the Caribbean, and the Big 4 accounting firms that enable their transactions, to contribute to the relief funds. The more difficult question is how to change the status quo and make sure that these companies actually contribute to the resources they take advantage of, both at home and abroad.
It’s more difficult because it requires admitting that the governments offering tax shelters, which today might be appealing for relief, are also extracting value from the governments of the foreign companies they host. So, for example, the UK taxpayers pay for infrastructure and education in the UK. British-based companies benefit from that. If they then benefit from havens to avoid paying tax to the UK, the tax shelters are, of course, a key part of the problem.
Clearly, a priority should be for companies, operating in countries offering tax havens in British Overseas Territories and the Commonwealth (or, indeed, elsewhere, such as Switzerland or Monte Carlo), to be more transparent. As argued by the Tax Research UK, this would mean that countries in the Overseas Territories should “provide free, online and publicly accessible registers of all companies and trusts” located there.
In particular, it argues that this information should include which individuals own more than 10% of the shares in each company registered in the location; the names of the directors and the various locations where the companies have offices. The Network also argues that the cost of UK aid should be matched by revenue from the companies benefiting from the tax shelters and that full annual accounts should be prepared in accordance with a recognisable set of accounting standards. A modest proposal would be for the countries to raise money from the companies by increasing, for example, the charges they make for offshore services, or by charging tax on the companies based in these places.
But if the whole point was to avoid tax, would this cause the companies to leave? This gets us to the core of the problem. It is impossible to have real growth, and a reduction in inequality, through policies that are in the end just part of what we might call the “global value extraction business”. The real questions are exactly those that Browne asked me.
Governments need to make critical investments that transform their societies in ways that create capacity, knowledge and long-run growth. This will be expensive, but possible, if arrangements are put in place so that those benefiting from the common resources also plough their profits back into those very resources. This, however, requires moving away from the “us v them” mentality and recognising that the problem rests just as much on the forces causing inequality at home as on the tensions between the rich and poor countries. It’s more than just an argument about who has to pick up the bill for the mess, disaster after disaster.
Hurricane Irma was one of the most powerful hurricanes on record in the Atlantic, and while it lost a little bit of steam before it plowed into Florida, it still had enough strength to change a few colors on the planet.
First of all, check out this LANDSAT 8 satellite image from the Caribbean, where Irma struck as a Category 5 hurricane last week.
The natural color images show what the lush, green islands looked like on Aug. 25 before Irma struck...and what they looked like on Sept. 10 after Irma had passed and the clouds had cleared.
NASA says the browning of the landscape can be for a number of reasons:
"Lush green tropical vegetation can be ripped away by a storm’s strong winds, leaving the satellite with a view of more bare ground," said Kathryn Hansen with NASA's Earth Observation program.
"Also, salt spray whipped up by the hurricane can damage and desiccate leaves while they are still on the trees."
You can see some of this effect from the damage photos we obtained from the U.S Virgin Islands from a witness who rode out the storm in Charlotte Amalie:
Hansen says looking at a before-and-after satellite image from Virgin Gorda shows the changes as well:
"Note how some of the vegetation on the south and west of the island is a bit greener, likely because it was partly shielded from winds by the hills in the center," she wrote.
Changes were visible in Florida as well -- not so much over land, but in the water. Irma did a spectacular job of churning up debris and sediment from the shallow waters just off Florida's Southwest coast where Irma went:
Looking at the satellite imagery as Irma headed toward the Florida coast, you can see the power involved to churn up that much water!
According to Seth Borenstein with the Associated Press, Irma generated the second most Accumulated Cyclone Energy — a key measurement that combines strength and duration — in the satellite era. Irma generated about as much as energy as entire normal Atlantic hurricane season, the Borenstein said.
A total of 32 taken into custody after people ordered off streets in areas under threat from Irma.
Police in Florida have made dozens of arrests for burglary and looting as criminals took advantage of a curfew that left homes and businesses empty as Hurricane Irma barrelled towards the state.
Officers shot one teenager they spotted apparently ransacking a house in the south of the state, while in Orlando a SWAT team was dispatched to tackle a stand-off after thieves broke into a sporting store.
An organised gang of at least 12 suspected looters were also seen loading boxes of shoes and clothes into cars outside a business in the Midtown area of the Miami, according to an NBC 6 reporter.
Deputies made it to the scene an hour later and made at least two arrests. They later posted a photo of 10 of the alleged looters, showing them restrained in a cell in custody.
The total of 32 arrests across Florida – 28 of which were in Miami – came in the early hours of Sunday, after people were ordered off the streets in three counties for at least 12 hours from 7pm US time.
City chiefs called for the lockdown in areas under threat from Irma as the storm swirled towards the southern coast of Florida, after leaving a trail of destruction across the Caribbean that killed at least 24 people.
At least 10 suspected looters were detained after targeting a sporting goods store in Miami Miami PD
Deputies shot the teenager outside a house in Broward County after the owners, who were out of town, spotted the suspected burglar on surveillance cameras inside the property.
The suspect, Dylan Lemon, was taken to Broward Health Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries after the incident in the city of Weston, police said.
Deputies said they arrested the youth’s suspected accomplice Jean Coello, 17, at the scene without incident. The pair face burglary and grand theft charges.
Broward Sheriff’s Office tweeted ahead of the curfew: “Looting during the storm will not be tolerated. Looters will be identified, investigated, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Police also arrested two men in Orlando after they were spotted allegedly looting two sporting goods stores.
Deputies attended after a manager saw suspicious activity on CCTV cameras inside one of the businesses, officers said.
A SWAT team was also dispatched to the shop after one of the men did not immediately give himself up to the police.
Deputies said the incident was “peacefully resolved”.
Police in Fort Lauderdale made nine arrests after a group of men were spotted looting a sportswear store before later targeting a pawn store, deputies said.
“Going to prison over a pair of sneakers is a fairly bad life choice,” said Chief Rick Maglione in a statement. “Stay home and look after your loved once [sic] and be thankful they are all safe.”
Deputies also tweeted: “We're on patrol & won't tolerate criminal activity as our community recovers from #HurricaneIrma!”
Hurricane Irma swept through central Florida just hours ago as it carved a path of destruction through the state with high winds and storm surges that left millions without power, ripped roofs off homes and flooded city streets.
Irma, once ranked as one of the most powerful hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic, came ashore in Florida on Sunday and battered towns as it worked its way up the state.
Scramble for biscuits, fruit and water descends into widespread looting of valuables as military forced to step in.
At dawn in St. Martin, people began to gather, quietly planning for survival after Hurricane Irma.
They started with the grocery stores, scavenging what they needed for sustenance: water, crackers, fruit.
But by nightfall on Thursday, what had been a search for food took a more menacing turn, as groups of looters, some of them armed, swooped in and took whatever of value was left: electronics, appliances and vehicles.
“All the food is gone now,” Jacques Charbonnier, a 63-year-old resident of St. Martin, said in an interview on Sunday. “People are fighting in the streets for what is left.”
In the few, long days since the storm Irma pummelled the north east Caribbean, killing more than two dozen people and levelling 90 percent of the buildings on some islands, the social fabric has begun to fray in some of the hardest-hit communities.
Residents of St. Martin, and elsewhere in the region, spoke about a general disintegration of law and order as survivors struggled in the face of severe food and water shortages, and the absence of electricity and phone service.
As reports of increasing desperation continued to emerge from the region over the weekend, governments in Britain, France and the Netherlands, which oversee territories in the region, stepped up their response. They defended themselves against criticism that their reaction had been too slow, and insufficient. Both the French and Dutch governments said they were sending in extra troops to restore order, along with the aid that was being airlifted into the region.
After an emergency meeting with his government on Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron of France said he would travel on Tuesday to St. Martin, an overseas French territory. Macron also announced late on Saturday that he would double France’s troop deployment to the region, to 2,200 from 1,100; officials say the increase is in part a response to the mayhem on St. Martin.
St. Maarten, the Dutch territorial side of the island, which uses a different spelling, has also experienced widespread looting of shops, though the problem was reported to have subsided by Sunday, though not completely.
“There was some looting in the first few days, but the Dutch marines and police are on the street to prevent it,” Paul De Windt, publisher of The Daily Herald, a newspaper in St. Maarten, said Sunday. “Some people steal luxury things and booze, but a lot of people are stealing water and biscuits.”
More than 265 Dutch military personnel have been deployed to St. Maarten, and another 250 are expected to be sent to the region in the next few days to help maintain order and assist with relief efforts, the Dutch government said. In addition, 90 police officers have been flown in from Curaçao, another Dutch territory.
The storm delivered a direct hit on the region starting Wednesday, destroying airports and ports, knocking out power and potable water systems, and leaving many tens of thousands of residents and tourists isolated and increasingly desperate, unable to go anywhere.
The crisis worsened on Saturday as Hurricane Jose rumbled through the region. Though the islands hit by Irma avoided a direct blow from the second hurricane, its arrival forced the suspension of relief and rescue operations, prolonging the agony for many.
A street in St. Martin after Hurricane Irma. Residents spoke of a disintegration in law and order as survivors struggled in the face of severe food and water shortages Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty
On Sunday, officials announced that two more bodies had been discovered in St. Maarten, increasing the death toll in the Caribbean attributable to Hurricane Irma to at least 27. So far, about a dozen deaths on both sides of the island have been attributed to the storm, according to the Associated Press. People here, however, insist that the death toll is much higher.
While there is no way to verify such claims, they illustrate the fear and the rumours swirling through an island as people cut off from the rest of the world, with roads blocked and most areas without cellular service. News, for the most part, is being relayed by word-of-mouth, leading to outsize claims. One popular rumour making the rounds on Sunday was that hundreds of people had died, some at the hands of escapees from a local prison.
The French government denied the rumours about the alleged prison break on Sunday. But some residents spoke of witnessing violence, with people fighting over food at grocery stores, and looters armed with guns and other weapons.
Residents reported that armed men had entered the Hotel Flamboyant in Marigot, the capital of the French side, and robbed tourists by knocking on the doors to their rooms, flashing guns and demanding valuables.
US officials said Sunday that they had helped evacuated about 1,200 American citizens from St. Martin, many on C-130s, which flew evacuees to Puerto Rico.
On Sunday, Cuba was also reckoning with the damage from Hurricane Irma, which roared along the island nation’s northern coast on Saturday.
Although there have been no reported fatalities or casualties, Havana awoke Sunday morning to substantial damage. The capital’s inhabitants, who spent the night in darkness after authorities cut power as a precaution, found fallen trees, mangled lampposts, and smashed water tanks. Floodwaters reached more than 600 yards into the city.
But damage in the capital was light compared with elsewhere on the island. In the coastal city of Matanzas, 60 miles east, one-story houses were completely under water, and damage to Cayo Romano and Cayo Coco, popular tourist islands, was severe. A video posted on Facebook showed hotel roofs caved in, and mounds of concrete and coils of steel in lobbies. The northern keys are home to more than 50 all-inclusive hotels, which provide essential hard currency for cash-strapped Cuba.
The Cuban government immediately began relief efforts, deploying security forces in large numbers to the hardest-hit areas, along with convoys of trucks carrying food and heavy equipment to help remove debris.
“Cuba is very organised,” said Orlando Eorlsando, 53, as he replaced his front door with bloated plywood in Havana. “The priority of the government is to keep people safe and preserve life.”
While the Cuban response seemed to be a well-oiled machine, elsewhere in the Caribbean the government reaction has been halting, critics say.
In France the criticism of the government’s response to the storm came first from President Macron’s opponents, who were eager to use the hurricane to find fault with his administration.
A more measured critique came from a former minister of France’s overseas territories, Victorin Lurel, who said that the situation needed more “resources, more logistical planning, more transport and a hospital boat.”
“People could have been evacuated ahead of time,” he said in an interview on Sunday on the news channel Europe1. The government response on the Dutch side, he insisted, was better than the French side.
In Marigot, a French Gendarmerie helicopter hovered over the city on Sunday afternoon, flying low and scanning the storm-blistered streets. Boats in the marina had been upturned, half-submerged or tossed onto the beach by the storm.
Families with relatives on the island organised convoys of boats from as far away as Guadeloupe, bringing water, canned goods, fuel and the chance to escape. But even that has become dangerous. Several boats turned back from the island’s main port, fearful of the crowds gathered seeking aid.
As one boat pulled into the Marigot’s harbour on Sunday, a family raced to the docks to offload goods — and load several children on board. Goodbyes were said quickly, and the new passengers who climbed aboard heaved a sigh of relief as the boat pulled off.
Maeva Canappele, 20, wept as the boat began to distance itself from the island of St. Martin, destined for Guadeloupe, a six-hour ride on choppy seas. She was grateful.
“It was getting bad on the island,” she said. “Someone broke into our home and tried to rob us, but my parents managed to scare them away.”
In a statement on Sunday, the French interior ministry said that after emergency needs are dealt with, reconstruction will begin. Among its priorities, the statement said, it intends to distribute 1 million litres of drinking water; secure private property from looters; and get the telecommunications systems running again.
On Tuesday, a French navy ship equipped with a hospital and carrying helicopters, troops and reconstruction material, will depart from France.
In Britain, lawmakers from both the governing Conservative party, as well as the Labour opposition, have accused the government of failing to take adequate precautions to protect the residents of three British territories lying in the path of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Jose.
About 75,000 people, most of them British nationals, live on the Caribbean territories of Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, and the British Virgin Islands — each of which suffered substantial damage from Hurricane Irma.
In preparation for the hurricane season, the British government had sent a naval supply ship to the region in July. Following the storm, the ship brought 40 relief specialists to Anguilla, who helped to restore power at the island’s main hospital and carry out repairs at its airport, according to the British Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson.
Since Friday, Britain has also sent two transport planes carrying almost 20 tonnes of emergency supplies to its Caribbean territories, as well as 250 marines and two extra military helicopters. Britain’s largest warship will arrive in the Caribbean in around 10 days, carrying eight more helicopters. (Source: The Independent)
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