Hurricane Irma makes landfall in the Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Monster Hurricane Irma slammed across islands in the northern Caribbean on Wednesday, packing a potentially catastrophic mix of pounding winds, raging surf and rain en route to a possible Florida landfall this weekend. Irma is expected to become the second powerful storm to thrash the U.S. mainland in as many weeks but its precise trajectory was uncertain. Hurricane Harvey killed more than 60 people and caused as much as $180 billion in damage after hitting Texas late last month. The eye of Irma, a Category 5 storm with winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour), passed over the island of St. Martin, east of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, on Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami said. Category 5 is its highest category. In Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan, a handful of people stood on the wind-whipped shore of a beachfront park on Wednesday morning to take a last look at the ocean before seeking shelter. “I am worried. This is going to be a huge storm, bigger than I have ever seen,” said Angelica Flecha, 45. She has stocked her second-floor home with food and water and put metal storm shutters on the windows, but was worried about a storm surge on the island, which is under a hurricane warning. Most businesses were closed and streets were almost empty. Cars packed parking lots of stores that were still open, with shoppers stuffing ice and water into their trunks. Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello urged the island’s 3.4 million residents to seek refuge in one of 460 hurricane shelters. It was not immediately clear how much damage Irma had done as it swept west. Related Coverage Florida prepares for powerful Hurricane Irma Pope Francis plane shifts course to avoid Hurricane Irma Two American tourists in the French territory of Guadeloupe, Loren Ann Mayo and Rachel Scharett, told CNN they were weathering the storm in their hotel room’s bathroom. Following a loud cracking noise, Mayo said, “The balcony snapped and is now hanging on by one little piece of wire.” Emergency officials on Antigua and Barbuda reported three injuries but minimal damage, with some roofs blown off. Communications between the islands were cut off, officials said. “MUCH TO FEAR” Several other Leeward Islands, including Anguilla, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, as well as the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and the Dominican Republic were under a hurricane warning. Hurricane Irma, a record Category 5 storm, is seen in this NOAA National Weather Service National Hurricane Center image from GOES-16 satellite taken on September 5, 2017. Courtesy NOAA National Weather Service National Hurricane Center/Handout via REUTERS In Paris, the French government said it had delivered water and food to two of its overseas territories, St. Martin and St. Barthelemy, and that emergency response teams would be sent once the storm had passed. Power was knocked out on both islands, according to prefecture officials on Guadeloupe. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said at least four buildings were damaged, including the prefecture, a fire brigade barracks and a police building and that low-lying regions had been flooded. “For now we’re not aware of any deaths,” Collomb told reporters in Paris. Slideshow (22 Images) French Overseas Territories Minister Annick Girardin said “there were was much to fear” for citizens who had not heeded calls to seek safety in more secure buildings. Irma ranked as one of the five most powerful Atlantic hurricanes in the last 80 years and the strongest Atlantic storm recorded by the outside the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, according to the NHC. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he was monitoring the storm closely. He approved emergency declarations for Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, mobilizing federal disaster relief efforts, the White House said. Authorities in the Florida Keys ordered a mandatory evacuation of visitors to start at sunrise on Wednesday. Public schools throughout South Florida were ordered closed, some as early as Wednesday. Residents of low-lying areas in densely populated Miami-Dade County were urged to move to higher ground. Florida Governor Rick Scott said there would be more mandatory evacuations around the state as Irma approached and as surges were expected to reach 10 feet (3 meters). “We can rebuild your home, we can’t rebuild your life,” Scott said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Irma could be worse than Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the state in 1992. “We don’t know exactly where this is going to hit,” he told ABC. “It sure looks like it’s going to bear down right in the middle of Florida.” Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long, speaking on the “CBS This Morning” program, said he was confident FEMA could handle Irma, even as he acknowledged potential staffing strains so soon after Hurricane Harvey struck Texas. Residents of Texas and Louisiana were still recovering from Harvey, which struck Texas as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25. It dumped several feet of rain, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, and displaced more than 1 million people. Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Ian Simpson and Susan Heavey in Washington, and Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Catherine Evans and Jeffrey Benkoe =============== Hurricane Irma threatens luxury Trump properties Chris Kenning 3 Min Read FILE PHOTO: The Mar-a-Lago estate is shown before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump departed with his family for New York, after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with family, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 27, 2016. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma swept over U.S. President Donald Trump’s 11-bedroom Caribbean mansion on Wednesday, the first of several luxury Trump properties threatened by the storm’s path. It was not immediately known whether Irma damaged Trump’s beachfront Chateau des Palmiers, or Castle of the Palms, on St. Martin. The gated estate, for sale for $16.9 million, is owned through a trust and had been rented out, U.S. media has reported. Advertisement But French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said some buildings had been destroyed and social media showed flooded roads and overturned cars on the island that is roughly divided between France and the Netherlands. The situation was being closely monitored on St. Martin and at a number of Trump properties in Florida, Trump Organization spokesperson Amanda Miller told Reuters in a statement. “Our teams at the Trump properties in Florida are taking all of the proper precautions and following local and Florida state advisories very closely to ensure that everyone is kept safe and secure,” Miller said. FILE PHOTO: Employees of Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump stand behind him in support at a campaign event at his Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, Florida, U.S. October 25, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo While Irma’s exact trajectory remained uncertain, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach - which has been called the “winter White House” and valued by Forbes at $175 million - could also take a hit. Trump bought the estate in 1985 and turned it into an exclusive club, which now boasts a membership fee of $200,000 and is a haven for the tony Palm Beach set who pull up to the gate in Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. FILE PHOTO: Trump Towers I, II and III (L to R) are shown in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, U.S. March 13, 2017. Sunny Isles is a suburb of Miami. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo A staffer who answered the phone said it was closed and declined to comment further. Palm Beach County declared a state of emergency on Wednesday. Near Miami, Trump owns luxury high-rise condos called the Trump Towers, Sunny Isles and the oceanfront Trump International Beach Resort. Some guests were leaving ahead of the storm but precautions were being taken and resort officials were prepared to oversee evacuations if they were ordered, marketing director Jim Monastra said. At the Trump National Doral, an 800-acre golf resort in Miami that local media reported had completed a $250 million renovation last year, officials tweeted Wednesday that resort operations were going on as normal until further notice. Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Andrew Hay ========================= September 5, 2017 / 3:27 PM / Updated an hour ago Hurricane Irma kills eight on Caribbean island of Saint Martin Scott Malone 6 Min Read SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma killed eight people on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and left Barbuda devastated on Thursday as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida. Television footage of the Franco-Dutch island of Saint Martin showed a damaged marina with boats tossed into piles, submerged streets and flooded homes. Power was knocked out on Saint Martin, Saint Barthelemy and in parts of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. “It is an enormous disaster, 95 percent of the island is destroyed. I am in shock,” Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council on Saint Martin, told Radio Caribbean International. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said eight people were killed and the toll was likely to rise. “We did not have the time yet to explore all the shores,” Collomb told Franceinfo radio, adding that 23 people were also injured. In all, at least 10 people were reported killed by Irma on four islands. Irma caused “enormous damage” to the Dutch side of Saint Martin, called Sint Maarten, the Dutch Royal Navy said. The navy tweeted images gathered by helicopter of damaged houses, hotels and boats. The airport was unreachable, it said. The hurricane was on track to reach Florida on Saturday or Sunday, becoming the second major hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland in as many weeks after Hurricane Harvey. The eye of Irma was moving west-northwest off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic on Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. The island of Barbuda is a scene of “total carnage” and the tiny two-island nation will seek international assistance, said Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda. Browne told the BBC about half of Barbuda’s population of some 1,800 were homeless while nine out of 10 buildings had suffered some damage and many were destroyed. RAIN AND WIND “We flew into Barbuda only to see total carnage. It was easily one of the most emotionally painful experiences that I have had,” Browne said in an interview on BBC Radio Four. “Approximately 50 percent of them (residents of Barbuda) are literally homeless at this time. They are bunking together, we are trying to get ... relief supplies to them first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, adding that it would take months or years to restore some level of normalcy to the island. Browne said one person was killed on Barbuda. A surfer was also reported killed on Barbados. Irma hit Puerto Rico early on Thursday, buffeting its capital San Juan with rain and wind that scattered tree limbs across roadways. At least half of Puerto Rico’s homes and businesses were without power, according to Twitter posts and a message posted by an island utility executive. View of the aftermath of Hurricane Irma on Sint Maarten Dutch part of Saint Martin island in the Carribean September 6, 2017. Picture taken September 6, 2017. Netherlands Ministry of Defence/Handout via REUTERS The NHC said it was the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean and one of the five most forceful storms to hit the Atlantic basin in 82 years. Irma’s precise course remained uncertain but it was likely to be downgraded to a Category 4 storm by the time it makes landfall in Florida, the NHC said. It has become a little less organized over the past few hours but the threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week were increasing, it said. Hurricane watches were in effect for the northwestern Bahamas and much of Cuba. STORM PREPARATIONS Slideshow (24 Images) Two other hurricanes formed on Wednesday. Katia in the Gulf of Mexico posed no threat to the United States, according to U.S. forecasters. Hurricane Jose was about 815 miles (1,310 km) east of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles islands, could eventually threaten the U.S. mainland. The storm activity comes after Harvey claimed about 60 lives and caused property damage estimated as high as $180 billion in Texas and Louisiana. Florida emergency management officials began evacuations in advance of Irma’s arrival, ordering tourists to leave the Florida Keys. Evacuation of residents from the Keys began Wednesday evening. Ed Rappaport, the Miami-based NHC’s acting director, told WFOR-TV that Irma was a “once-in-a-generation storm.” In Cuba, 90 miles (145 km) south of the Keys, authorities posted a hurricane alert for the island’s central and eastern regions, as residents in Havana, the capital, waited in lines to stock up on food, water and gasoline. U.S. President Donald Trump said he and aides were monitoring Irma’s progress. The president owns the waterfront Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump approved emergency declarations from that state, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, mobilizing federal disaster relief efforts. Florida Governor Rick Scott said Irma could be more devastating than Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that struck the state in 1992 and still ranks as one of the costliest ever in the United States. Residents in most coastal communities of densely populated Miami-Dade County were ordered to move to higher ground beginning at 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT) on Thursday, Mayor Carlos Gimenez said ================= Irma aims full fury at Florida's Gulf Coast, floods central Miami Robin Respaut, Zachary Fagenson 5 Min Read FORT MYERS/MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma lashed the Gulf Coast of Florida with the brunt of its fury on Sunday afternoon, knocking out electricity to 2.5 million homes and businesses statewide while flooding streets and swaying skyscrapers in Miami. Hours after barreling across the resort archipelago of the Florida Keys, the storm crept up the western shore of the Florida Peninsula to make a second landfall at Marco Island around 3.35 ET (1935 GMT), about a dozen miles south of upscale beach town Naples on the Gulf of Mexico. Irma’s eye wall came ashore not long after it was downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 3 storm on the five-point Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour (195 mph). Forecasters warned that Irma remained extremely dangerous as the monster storm toppled trees and power lines, peeled tiles off roofs and threatened coastal areas with storm surges of up to 15 feet (4.6 m). Tornadoes were also spotted through the southern part of the state. Some 6.5 million people, about a third of the state’s population, had been ordered to evacuate southern Florida as the storm approached. “This is a life-threatening situation,” Governor Rick Scott told a press conference. Curfews were declared on Sunday evening for the Gulf Coast towns of Tampa and St. Petersburg as several Florida counties reported arrests of looters taking advantage of homes left vacant by evacuations. The storm killed at least 28 people as it raged through the Caribbean en route to Florida. On Sunday, Irma claimed its first U.S. fatality - a man found dead in a pickup truck that had crashed into a tree in high winds in the town of Marathon, in the Keys. The storm’s westward tilt as it advanced on Florida put a string of Gulf Coast cities at greatest risk and spared the densely populated Miami area the full force of its wrath. The state’s biggest city, situated about 100 miles (160 km) east of Irma’s core, was anything but unscathed. Related Coverage Trump approves major disaster declaration for Florida Factbox: Over 2.6 million lose power in Florida from Irma, utilities say Miami apartment towers swayed in the high winds, two construction cranes were toppled, and small white-capped waves could be seen in flooded streets between Miami office towers. Tampa and Hurricane bays experienced extraordinarily low tides that left sea life visible and boats grounded, though forecasters warned the storm would soon drive those waters back in with storm surges along the state’s Gulf Coast. Last week, Irma had ranked as one of the most powerful hurricanes ever documented in the Atlantic, one of only a handful of Category 5 storms known to have packed sustained winds at 185 miles per hour or more. Before turning on Florida, the storm pummeled Cuba with 36-foot-tall (11 meter) waves after ravaging several smaller Caribbean islands. A local resident walks across a flooded street in downtown Miami as Hurricane Irma arrives at south Florida, U.S. September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Its core was located about 5 miles (8 km)north of Naples by 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) and was expected to move along or over Florida’s western coast through the afternoon and evening. Irma is expected to cause billions of dollars in damage to the third-most-populous U.S. state, a major tourism hub with an economy that generates about 5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. About 2.5 million Florida homes and businesses had lost power, according to Florida Power & Light and other utilities. MIAMI BUILDINGS SWAY, STREETS FLOODED Slideshow (16 Images) Waves poured over a Miami seawall, flooding streets waist-deep in places around Brickell Avenue which runs a couple of blocks from the waterfront through the financial district and past consulates. High rise apartment buildings were left standing like islands in the flood. One woman in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood delivered her own baby because emergency responders were unable to reach her, the city of Miami said on Twitter. Mother and infant were later taken to a hospital, it said. Deme Lomas, who owns Miami restaurant Niu Kitchen, said he saw a crane torn apart by winds and dangling from the top of a building. “We feel the building swaying all the time,” Lomas said in a phone interview from his 35th-floor apartment. “It’s like being on a ship.” On Marco Island, 67-year-old Kathleen Turner and her husband rode out the storm on the second floor of a friend’s condominium after failing to find a flight out. She feared for her canal-facing home. “I‘m feeling better than being in my house, but I‘m worried about my home, about what’s going to happen,” Turner said. Irma comes just days after Hurricane Harvey dumped record-setting rain in Texas, causing unprecedented flooding, killing at least 60 people and an estimated $180 billion in property damage. Almost three months remain in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through November. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to the governors of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee on Sunday and issued a disaster declaration for Puerto Rico, which was hit by the storm last week, the White House said. -------------- ========================= Discover Thomson Reuters Directory of sites Login Contact Support U.S. denies Iran report of confrontation with U.S. vessel U.N. to vote on new North Korea sanctions on Monday afternoon: diplomats #EnvironmentSeptember 10, 2017 / 10:14 PM / Updated 6 hours ago Factbox: Over four million lose power in Florida from Irma, utilities say Reuters Staff 2 Min Read Water rises up to a sidewalk by the Miami river as Hurricane Irma arrives at south Florida, in downtown Miami, Florida, U.S., September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (Reuters) - More than 4 million homes and businesses have lost power in Florida, major utilities said on Sunday, as Hurricane Irma pummeled the state. Most outages were in Florida Power & Light’s service area in the southern and eastern parts of the state. FPL, the state’s biggest power company, said more than 3.3 million of its customers were without service. As the storm moved up the coast, Duke Energy’s outages steadily climbed. Irma hit Florida on Sunday morning as a dangerous Category 4 storm, the second highest level on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It weakened as it moved up the state’s west coast and by late evening, it was a Category 2 with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (169 kph). FPL is a unit of NextEra Energy Inc (NEE.N). Other big power utilities in Florida are units of Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N), Southern Co (SO.N) and Emera Inc (EMA.TO). Related Video Reporting by Scott DiSavino and Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay, Sandra Maler and Gopakumar Warrier Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. #EnvironmentSeptember 11, 2017 / 6:32 AM / Updated 9 hours ago Hurricane Irma threatens Florida's bustling tourism industry Alana Wise, Caroline Humer 3 Min Read Boats are seen at a marina in Coconut Grove as Hurricane Irma arrives at south Florida, in Miami, Florida, U.S., September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma’s path of destruction up Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sunday threatens to disrupt a thriving state tourism industry worth more than $100 billion annually just months ahead of the busy winter travel season. Some of the state’s biggest attractions have announced temporary closures, including amusement park giants Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, Legoland and Sea World, which all planned to close through Monday. About 20 cruise lines have Miami as a home port or a port of call, according to the PortMiami website, and many have had to move ships out of the area and revise schedules. Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean have canceled and revised several sailings as a result of the storm and have offered credits and waivers on trips where passengers are unable to travel. Related Video A Carnival spokesman said the situation in Florida on Sunday was still not clear enough to fully assess how widespread the effects will be. “We will know more in the hours ahead since the hurricane is active in Florida right now,” spokesman Roger Frizzell said. Irma made a second Florida landfall on Sunday on southwestern Marco Island as a Category 3 storm bringing winds of 115 miles per hour (185 kph) and life-threatening sea surge. A vehicle drives along a flooded street in downtown Miami as Hurricane Irma arrives at south Florida, U.S., September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria Disney canceled the Monday sailing of one of its cruise ships and said it is assessing future sailings, which stop throughout the Caribbean and in the Bahamas. Florida is one of the world’s top tourism destinations. Last year nearly 113 million people visited the state, a new record, and spent $109 billion, state officials said earlier this year. The first half of 2017 was on track to beat that record pace, officials said. Slideshow (2 Images) The damage Irma’s winds and storm surge do to Florida’s 660 miles (1,060 km) of beaches and the structures built along them during more than 30 years of explosive population growth will be critical to how quickly the state’s ’s No. 1 industry recovers. The Gulf beaches west of St. Petersburg and Clearwater, are squarely in the storm’s path. In 2016, more than 6.3 million people visited Pinellas County, which encompasses those cities, and generated more $9.7 billion in economic activity. Up and down the wide, sandy beaches of Pinellas County are traditional “old Florida” waterfront hotels such as the Don Cesar, a coral pink 1920s hotel on St. Pete Beach, which was closed by the storm. There are also modern high-rises and resorts that are part of the nation’s biggest chains and brands including Hyatt Hotels, Marriott International, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The low-lying barrier islands would be inundated if Irma’s storm surge reaches forecast heights of as high as 15 feet (4.6 meters). While some newer structures in the area are built on elevated pilings, many older homes and businesses are not. Reporting by Alana Wise and Caroline Humer; Editing by Joseph White and Mary Milliken Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. #EnvironmentSeptember 11, 2017 / 1:25 AM / Updated an hour ago Caribbean faces hard road to recovery after Irma's ravages Sarah Marsh 6 Min Read VARADERO, Cuba (Reuters) - From Cuba to Antigua, Caribbean islanders began counting the cost of Hurricane Irma on Sunday after the brutal storm left a trail of death, destruction and chaos from which the tourist-dependent region could take years to recover. The Category 5 storm, which killed at least 28 people across the region, devastated housing, power supplies and communications, leaving some small islands almost cut off from the world. European nations sent military reinforcements to keep order amid looting, while the damage was expected to total billions of dollars. Ex-pat billionaires and poor islanders alike were forced to take cover as Irma tore roofs off buildings, flipped cars and killed livestock, raging from the Leeward Islands across Puerto Rico and Hispaniola then into Cuba before turning on Florida. Waves of up to 36 feet (11 meters) smashed businesses along the Cuban capital Havana’s sea-side drive on Sunday morning. Further east, high winds whipped Varadero, the island’s most important tourist resort. “It’s a complete disaster and it will take a great deal of work to get Varadero back on its feet,” said Osmel de Armas, 53, an aquatic photographer who works on the beach at the battered resort. Sea-front hotels were evacuated in Havana and relief workers spent the night rescuing people from homes in the city center as the sea penetrated to historic depths in the flood-prone area. U.S President Donald Trump issued a disaster declaration on Sunday for Puerto Rico, where Irma killed at least 3 people and left hundreds of thousands without electricity. Trump also expanded federal funds available to the U.S. Virgin Islands, which suffered extensive damage to homes and infrastructure. Further east in the Caribbean, battered islands such as St. Martin and Barbuda were taking stock of the damage as people began emerging from shelters to scenes of devastation. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the death toll on the Dutch part of St. Martin had doubled to four, and that 70 percent of homes had been damaged or destroyed. Related Coverage After Irma, tourists party and Cubans take a dip in flooded streets Following reports of looting, the Netherlands said it would increase its military presence on the island to 550 soldiers by Monday. Rutte said that to ensure order, security forces were authorized to act with a “firm hand”. Alex Martinez, 31, a native of Florida who was vacationing on the Dutch side of St. Martin when Irma hit the island in the early hours of Wednesday, vividly described how his hotel was gutted by the storm, turning it into a debris-strewn tip. Doors were torn from hinges, windows shattered, cars lifted off the ground and furniture blown through the rooms after Irma hit the building with a burst of pressure that was “like you were getting sucked out of an aeroplane,” he said. Martinez, his wife and two others barricaded themselves in their bathroom, pushing with all their might to secure the door as Irma battered it with winds of up to 185 mph (300 km/h). “That’s when we thought, ‘that was it’,” he said. “I honestly, swear to God, thought we were going to die at that point in time. Everything continued for maybe 20, 30 minutes; my wife’s there, she’s praying, praying, praying, praying, and things just kinda calmed down. I guess that’s when the eye (of the storm came).” A man and two children wade through a flooded street, after the passing of Hurricane Irma, in Havana, Cuba September 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer Staff deserted the hotel to look after their families and Martinez and a few others had to scavenge for food and water for three days until they were airlifted out on Saturday, he said. Dutch authorities are evacuating other tourists and injured people to Curacao, where Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk were expected to arrive today. MALICIOUS ACTIONS France, which oversees neighboring Saint Barthelemy and the other half of St Martin, said the police presence on the two islands had been boosted to close to 500. Slideshow (25 Images) The French interior ministry said 11 people suspected of “malicious actions” had been arrested since Friday as television footage showed scenes of chaos on the islands, with streets under water, boats and cars tossed into piles and torn rooftops. Irma killed at least 10 people on the two islands, the French government said. France’s Caisse Centrale de Reassurance, a state-owned reinsurance group, estimated the cost of Irma at some 1.2 billion euros ($1.44 billion). French President Emmanuel Macron was due to visit St. Martin on Tuesday. Barbuda, home to some 1,800 inhabitants, faces a reconstruction bill that could total hundreds of millions of dollars, state officials say, after Irma steamrolled the island. The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, said Irma had wreaked “absolute devastation” on Barbuda, which he described as “barely habitable” after 90 percent of cars and buildings had been damaged. The government ordered a total evacuation when a second hurricane, Jose, emerged, but a handful of people refused to leave their homes, including “a gentleman (who) said he was living in a cave”, said Garfield Burford, director of news at government-owned broadcaster ABS TV and Radio in Antigua and Barbuda. Irma also plunged the British Virgin Islands, an offshore business and legal center, into turmoil. Yachts were piled on top of each other in the harbor and many houses in the hillside capital of Road Town on the main island of Tortola were badly damaged. Both there and in Anguilla to the east, residents complained help from the British government was too slow in coming, prompting a defensive response from London. “We weren’t late,” Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told BBC television on Sunday, saying Britain had “pre-positioned” an aid ship for the Caribbean hurricane season and that his government’s response “has been as good as anybody else‘s.” British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson, who sought refuge in the wine cellar of his home on Necker island, called Irma the “storm of the century” on Twitter and urged people to make donations to help rebuild the region. Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta and Marc Frank in Havana, Matthias Blamont in Paris, Anthony Deutsch and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam, Kylie MacLellan in London, Makini Brice in Haiti; Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Sandra Maler and Paul Tait Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. #World NewsSeptember 10, 2017 / 5:03 PM / Updated 17 hours ago U.S. denies Iran report of confrontation with U.S. vessel FILE PHOTO: An Iranian national flag flutters during the opening ceremony of the 16th International Oil, Gas & Petrochemical Exhibition (IOGPE) in Tehran April 15, 2011. REUTERS/STR/File Photo Reuters Staff 3 Min Read BEIRUT (Reuters) - An Iranian military vessel confronted an American warship in the Gulf and warned it to stay away from a damaged Iranian fishing boat, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, but the U.S. Navy denied any direct contact with Iranian forces. The American vessel turned away after the warning from the Iranian ship, which belonged to the naval branch of the Iranian army, according to Tasnim. The Iranian military vessel then towed the fishing boat, which had sent out a distress signal after taking on water, back to shore. The agency did not specify when the incident, close to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, took place. In statement, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) said the coastal patrol USS Tempest, operating in the Gulf of Oman on Sept. 6, heard the distress call of an unidentified small boat about 75 nautical miles from the Tempest’s position. At the same time the motor vessel Nordic Voyager, much closer to the boat in distress, offered help and had made visual contact with it. The Tempest offered to support the Nordic Voyager which declined the offer, NAVCENT said. Following the radio traffic from a distance, USS Tempest heard the Nordic Voyager coordinate additional Iranian Navy help for the vessel in distress to tow it back to Iran. “At no time was there any direct contact between the U.S. and Iranian maritime forces,” NAVCENT spokesman Chloe Morgan said. Tensions have been on the rise between the Iranian and U.S. military in the Gulf in recent months. In August, an unarmed Iranian drone came within 100 feet (31 meters) of a U.S. Navy warplane as it prepared to land on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf, a U.S. official said at the time. And in July, a U.S. Navy ship fired warning shots when an Iranian vessel in the Gulf came within 150 yards (137 meters) in the first such incident since President Donald Trump took office in January, U.S. officials said. Years of mutual animosity had eased when Washington lifted sanctions on Tehran last year as part of a deal to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But serious differences remain over Iran’s ballistic missile program and conflicts in Syria and Iraq. The Trump administration, which has taken a hard line on Iran, recently declared that Iran was complying with its nuclear agreement with world powers, but warned that Tehran was not following the spirit of the accord and that Washington would look for ways to strengthen it. During the presidential campaign last September, Trump vowed that any Iranian vessels that harass the U.S. Navy in the Gulf would be “shot out of the water.” Reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh and William Maclean; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Mark Potter Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Sponsored Sponsored Sponsored #World NewsSeptember 11, 2017 / 1:00 PM / Updated 5 hours ago U.N. to vote on new North Korea sanctions on Monday afternoon: diplomats Michelle Nichols 5 Min Read UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council is set to vote on Monday afternoon on a watered-down U.S.-drafted resolution to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its latest nuclear test, diplomats said, but it was unclear whether China and Russia would support it. The draft resolution appears to have been weakened in a bid to appease North Korea’s ally China and Russia following negotiations during the past few days. In order to pass, a resolution needs nine of the 15 Security Council members to vote in favor and no vetoes by any of the five permanent members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. The draft, seen by Reuters on Sunday, no longer proposes blacklisting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The initial draft proposed he be subjected to a travel ban and asset freeze along with four other North Korea officials. The final text only lists one of those officials. The draft text still proposes a ban on textile exports, which were North Korea’s second-biggest export after coal and other minerals in 2016, totaling $752 million, according to data from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. Nearly 80 percent of the textile exports went to China. The draft drops a proposed oil embargo and instead intends to impose a ban on condensates and natural gas liquids, a cap of two million barrels a year on refined petroleum products, and a cap crude oil exports to North Korea at current levels. Related Video China supplies most of North Korea’s crude. According to South Korean data, Beijing supplies roughly 500,000 tonnes of crude oil annually. It also exports 200,000 tonnes of oil products, according to U.N. data. Russia’s exports of crude oil to North Korea are about 40,000 tonnes a year. The draft resolution also no longer proposes an asset freeze on the military-controlled national airline Air Koryo. Since 2006, the Security Council has unanimously adopted eight resolutions ratcheting up sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs. The Security Council last month imposed new sanctions over North Korea’s two long-range missile launches in July. The Aug. 5 resolution aimed to slash by a third Pyongyang’s $3 billion annual export revenue by banning coal, iron, lead and seafood. FOREIGN WORKERS The new draft resolution drops a bid to remove an exception for transshipments of Russian coal via the North Korean port of Rajin. In 2013 Russia reopened a railway link with North Korea, from the Russian eastern border town of Khasan to Rajin, to export coal and import goods from South Korea and elsewhere. The original draft resolution would have authorized states to use all necessary measures to intercept and inspect on the high seas vessels that have been blacklisted by the council. However, the final draft text calls upon states to inspect vessels on the high seas with the consent of the flag state, if there’s information that provides reasonable grounds to believe the ship is carrying prohibited cargo. The Aug. 5 resolution adopted by the council capped the number of North Koreans working abroad at the current level. The new draft resolution initially imposed a complete ban on the hiring and payment of North Korean laborers abroad. The final draft text to be voted on Monday by the council would require the employment of North Korean workers abroad to be authorized by a Security Council committee. However, this rule would not apply to “written contracts finalized prior to the adoption of this resolution” provided that states notify the committee by Dec. 15 of the number of North Koreans subject to these contracts and the anticipated date of termination of these contracts. Some diplomats estimate that between 60,000 and 100,000 North Koreans work abroad. A U.N. human rights investigator said in 2015 that North Korea was forcing more than 50,000 people to work abroad, mainly in Russia and China, earning between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year. The wages of workers sent abroad provide foreign currency for the Pyongyang government. There is new political language in the final draft urging “further work to reduce tensions so as to advance the prospects for a comprehensive settlement” and underscoring “the imperative of achieving the goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.” Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Paul Tait & Simon Cameron-Moore Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Sponsored Sponsored Sponsored Sponsored AppsNewslettersReuters PlusAdvertising GuidelinesCookiesTerms of UsePrivacy All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. © 2017 Reuters. All Rights Reserved.