A hurricanecalled IRMA Overwhelming – Nothing sparing – Irrespectivefinding a word to describe this is impossible Hurricane Irma, whatto tell about it !Irma set a record, it is the largest hurricane ever measured outside the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Thehurricane affected no less than nine states. Trees snapped like matches,streets turned into wild rivers, cars trucks and buses flew through the windlike they were toy.It lastedas a hurricane from August 31 until September 11.
On the sixth of September Irma swept Barbados and destroyed more than 95%of the buildings on the island.On September 10, the hurricane landed in the southwest of Florida. Irmaleft a trail of destruction as she went further inland. Whole areas were cutoff from the outside world, they could no longer reach anyone but theythemselves had also become unreachable. In this way more than 5 million peoplebecame homeless.More than 200,000 people were without energy, half of the time alreadymore than 25 deaths were regretted. Cities like Alabama,North Carolina and South Carolina have declared states of emergency.
In Lee County they decided on Saturday afternoon to leave the buses,taking up the people to the shelters, for what they were so that the driversthemselves could look for safe accommodation. People who did not catch or grabtheir belongings in time stayed behind, so they had to find a way to get to theshelters themselves.At its peak, Hurricane Irma belonged to category 5, which is the highestcategory.
Wind speeds of more than 250 kilometers per hour and a storm surge ofmore than 5.5 meters”Catastrophic damage”: almost all houses and buildings aredestroyed, nothing remains of roofs, walls collapse, no trees remain.Constructions are able to cope somewhat with this when they are miles inland. Inland,high tidal waves can occur for miles.A week after Irma reached the Caribbean islands as a Category 5hurricane, it has become a storm that now rises above the south-east of the US.Irma has drawn a trail of death and destruction in a week’s time, 61 dead havebeen counted for the time being.The economic damage after the passage of Irma rises to about 100 billiondollars. Two Antwerp sisters have survived hurricane Irma in their secondhomeland in the Caribbean.
Elsa and Olivia are half-Belgian and half-Caribbean.Irma is the heaviest hurricane ever measured in the Atlantic. The eye of thehurricane has passed just above the island of Tortola with catastrophic damageas a result. The gusts of wind are so abnormally strong that windows and doorscan explode.
You do not want to experience that. “We have had wind gusts of360 kilometers per hour.”When it became clear that they would not be repatriated, they set uptheir evacuation on their own. “My friend happened to be in Puerto Ricoduring Irma, and he arranged for us to join a private plane,” says Elsa.”We took a few things and we boarded the plane”, says Olivia.
“We have been very lucky.” Without that flight, they said they werestill on Tortola.We are afraid that it will take many years before everything will berebuilt. Due to climate change, hurricanes are becoming increasingly fierce.
Never before have we experienced such a stormy hurricane. It is not possible tolive there, once you have built something it is blown away by some kind ofstorm or hurricane. Maybe if the people there live in bunkers that they canstay in their house during a hurricane.
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