As Florida prepares for the onslaught of Hurricane Irma, hundreds of thousands have already been caught in its devastation – including American tourists stranded by the oncoming storm.
Among their number is Jonathan Falwell – brother of Reverend Jerry Falwell – on the island of St Martin, and a Milwaukee wedding party now bunkering down amid Irma’s strike on the Dominican Republic.
They and many like them can only wait until it’s safe enough to fly back to the US, while tourists in Florida scramble for their planes home before they, too, are stranded.
Decimated: The Rev. Jonathan Falwell posted this photo after surviving Hurricane Irma’s passage over the Caribbean island of St Martin. He asked his followers to pray for it
Near miss: Falwell and his wife (both seen left) had gone to the island to celebrate their anniversary. Their first shelter (right) was shredded by winds just after they moved to another
Shaken: Another American, Kerman Haynes, posted about his ‘entire building shaking’ as Irma passed over his hotel in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands
Irma is currently passing across the Caribbean in a continuing north-westerly curve towards Florida and the rest of the US mainland.
The hurricane – ranked a Category 5, the highest level, with wind speeds of up to 180mph – is moving over the north side of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
In the midst of the storm are Nate Dooley, his girlfriend and her family, who were in the popular resort town of Punta Cana for a wedding, WISN reported.
With their flights home cancelled due to the hurricane – and the remaining flights priced too high at $1,700 – all the group can do is wait in their rooms at The Now Larimar Resort and pray.
‘They gave us a sheet under the door saying from 8pm tonight through Thursday don’t leave the room,’ Dooley said.
‘They’re going to bring us food and water. We’ve already kind of stockpiled what we can.’
He said that the first floor of the hotel had been evacuated due to the potential flooding. ‘My biggest concern is this is going to change direction and hit us head-on,’ he added.
Trapped: Nate Dooley (pictured left and right) and his girlfriend Keely Raye (right) were stuck in the Dominican Republic along with a wedding party including her family
Wreckage: Buildings were demolished in the Dominican Republic by the Category 5 hurricane, while Dooley – who couldn’t afford the $1,700 flights home – hid out
Tracking the storm: This model from European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast shows the projected path of Irma – including landfall in Florida
Smashed: View of wreckage in the vicinity of the Santurce neighborhood in the aftermath of the hurricane Irma, in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Thursday
One man who has been through the devastation of the hurricane is the Reverend Jonathan Falwell, brother of Jerry Falwell and pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Virginia.
He had taken his wife for a wedding anniversary trip to the Caribbean island of St Martin when the arrival of Irma left them stranded.
The couple and others were evacuated from one shelter to another as the winds buffeted them at 5am – and minutes later their previous shelter’s roof was ripped off.
The following morning, Falwell posted a photo of the ruined building on Twitter. It had been completely gutted.
He emerged Wednesday afternoon to a scene of utter destruction. ‘We are safe. No power, no water, everything destroyed,’ he tweeted. ‘Buildings gone. Please pray as this island is decimated.’
Ruined: This photo from Rev. Falwell on Wednesday shows the massive damage inflicted on St Martin by the devastating hurricane
Delta confirmed on Thursday that the St Thomas and St Martin airports were closed for damage, and that it had canceled its flights for Thursday and Friday, AJC.com reported.
On Thursday he posted more photographs showing buildings battered, detritus piled high and palm trees torn down. ‘Sun is out but devastation remains,’ he wrote.
These are just some of hundreds of thousands of groups left stranded in the area as Irma continues to lay waste to island after island.
On Wednesday afternoon, Irma hit the British Virgin islands, followed by Puerto Rico. In both instances American tourists were left hiding for their lives.
South Carolina couple Emily and Thomas Moss were left stranded on the British Virgin Island of St Thomas; they had tried to call time on their vacation but all of the planes out were booked up, Fox Carolina reported.
She was able to get a message on Facebook saying that she was all right just before the storm hit and the wifi and internet connections went down.
Also hiding on the same island are Alicia Ping and her husband Dave, who are in a local shelter, WXYZ reported.
Costly: Alicia Ping and her husband Dave (right) couldn’t afford the $25,000 it would take to rent a private jet to escape St Thomas when all the commercial planes were booked up
Emotional: Ping said it was ’emotional’ to imagine the water reaching the third floor of their holiday condo, as expected. Instead they hid in this nearby evacuation shelter
They sought out the shelter to avoid being stuck on top of two stories of water in the condo they had rented.
‘It’s pretty emotional. We’re on the 3rd floor of this condo, but the way the water is supposed to come up, it could get close to the bottom of the third level,’ she said prior to the storm’s arrival.
Elsewhere in the British Virgin Islands, Andrew Burruss and friend Kerman Haynes were left hiding under a mattress in a room with blown-out windows, according to a Facebook post made by Haynes Wednesday.
The Atlanta men had filled the bathroom of their Tortola hotel with food, first aid and buckets of water on Tuesday, and told AJC.com they planned to stay awake throughout the storm.
Neither man had posted publicly as of Thursday. Kernan’s sister posted on Facebook at 9am that she hadn’t heard from him.
Also Wednesday WDRB.com spoke to three men from Louisville, Kentucky, who were stuck in Puerto Rico after their flight was canceled.
Stephen Smith filmed footage of the seas churning and palm trees blowing as the hurricane approached their hotel in San Juan.
He said the earliest they would be able to fly is Thursday – if planes are available.
Also stranded in San Juan were Dr Sanjay Kumar and his wife Frani, who had flown from Lowcountry South Carolina to celebrate their daughter’s graduation.
Hiding: Kerman Haynes and Andrew Burruss were left hiding under a mattress in a room with blown-out windows after getting trapped on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands
Update: The pair had to turn their phones off for extended periods to save their batteries – but made sporadic updates. However, they hadn’t been heard from as of Thursday morning
The last plane for the foreseeable future flew on Tuesday and had no more seats available – leaving the family stuck on the island, WJCL reported.
‘We tried Monday morning to switch our flights, because our flight is going out [Thursday],’ Frani said.
‘So we couldn’t get out, and nobody could get out. So we thought let’s see what a jet type thing might be and they wanted $25,000.
‘So most of the people are just kinds getting in their homes and doing what everybody else does in a hurricane. A couple of them said they had never seen anything this high.’
DEVASTATION CAUSED BY HURRICANE ANDREW IN 1992
Hurricane Andrew was a Category Five hurricane that struck the Bahamas and Florida in mid-August 1992.
It was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida, and the costliest to the United States until Katrina in 2005.
The storm sustained wind speeds as high as 165 mph and passed directly through Miami-Dade County.
It stripped many homes of all but their foundations, and destroyed more than 63,500 homes.
The storm cost a total of $26.5 billion in damages and left 65 people dead.
Hurricane Andrew was a Category Five hurricane that struck the Bahamas and Florida in mid-August 1992. Pictured is the devastation it left
They were left hiding in a makeshift shelter in the hotel’s basement, WJCL reported. But once they are able to fly, Irma may be on course to hit their home on the coast of South Carolina – leaving them unsure about what to do.
Worries about planes aren’t restricted to the Caribbean.
Tourists and residents of Florida are also worrying about their flights as they try to escape the arrival of Hurricane Irma, which is expected to reach Miami on Sunday.
On Thursday Delta Air Lines canceled its Saturday flights for Ft Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach, AJC.com reported.
It was also considering canceling flights for Sunday, and said flights in North and South Carolina could also face cancellations as Irma heads northwards.
The airlines serving Florida’s three main airports began canceling or delaying flights to the state on Wednesday, leading to panic among those there, theSun-Sentinel reported.
US state destinations affected by the cancellations on Wednesday included Newark, New Jersey, and Key West.
A handful of destinations further afield also had cancellations: San Juan and Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands and St Kitts.
Those who find themselves stranded in airports in Florida have also been warned that they should go elsewhere for shelter as the buildings are not designed to serve that purpose.
‘Resources like food and water may also not be readily available in the airport during or after the storm,’ Miami International Airport spokesman Greg Chin said.
Triple threat: This satellite image shows (L-R) Category 1 Hurricane Katia; Category 5 Hurricane Irma and Category 1 Hurricane Jose on Thursday