These are the dramatic scenes of the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Irma as the Caribbean island of St Maarten was destroyed by 225mph winds.
Thousands of home across the island have been destroyed, while luxury yachts moored in marinas have been sank and driven on shore by the hurricane-force winds.
Locals have been forced to queue for basic aid and even water as the island’s infrastructure has been knocked out by the hurricane.
Others have been forced to arm themselves to protect their property as widespread looting has been reported.
The footage shows the complete devastation suffered by the island with almost every building suffering structural damage as the 225mph winds blasted off their roofs.
Hurricane Irma damaged almost every building on the island, ripping off roofs and blowing out windows
Boat owners were unable to find a safe place to store their vessels to ride out the storm before Irma’s dramatic arrival
The island’s road network has become clogged by locals seeking assistance from remote areas causing gridlock
MailOnline journalists became the first British press to reach the stricken island, travelling 100miles from Antigua by speedboat because the airport was destroyed.
Our drone exposed the scale of the carnage, with top-of-the-range pleasure boats flung onto dry land or piled on top of each other by the wind.
Entire houses had been flattened. Thousands of people could be seen stuck in traffic jams as they desperately tried to secure for basic necessities before the three o’clock curfew.
We found half-empty supermarkets filled with stinking pools of fetid water, the broken fridges holding meat crawling with maggots. Families were living on cornflakes and meagre aid handouts from the Dutch military.
Looting and lawlessness has wreaked havoc on the island, with gun-toting gangs marauding through the smashed streets and robbing people of what little they have left.
The island, which is 1,200 miles south east of Miami, Florida is split between the French section on the north, which is called St Martin and the Dutch administered area on the south, named St Maarten.
St Maarten is famous for its Princess Juliana International Airport because arriving aircraft pass at low level above the Maho beach. Thrillseekers often stand behind the runaway and get blasted by the jet wash of aircraft preparing to take off.
MailOnline’s Jake Wallis Simons, pictured, chartered a speedboat to St Maarten from Antigua and travelled more than 100 miles to inspect the devastation on the island first hand and bring exclusive drone footage of the carnage wrought by Irma
The Dutch and French armies have deployed soldiers onto the streets in a desperate attempt to maintain order and enforce the curfew. On Thursday, police promised ‘quick and swift punishment’ for looters, arresting eight people for remaining on the streets after 3pm and other offences, including the possession of drugs.
Motorists are forced to queue for more than six hours at petrol stations, making the theft of petrol has become a scourge of ordinary people trying to rebuild their lives.
One Dutch marine, who gave his name as John Cheese, 24, slammed the Red Cross, saying that soldiers were being forced to ‘play policeman, social worker, soldier, nurse and doctor’ because the NGO was not responding adequately to the crisis.
‘They’re not doing sh**,’ he told MailOnline. ‘We are having to give people our own rations and water because the Red Cross is not providing supplies. We are using our own surgical gloves and equipment.
‘How are we supposed to keep order on the island when we are having to do aid work to cover for the Red Cross?’
Eighty-two elderly and vulnerable people remained in the care of the Dutch army while looters and thieves run amok elsewhere on the island in areas like Middle Region, he said.
Mechanic Mr Marcus, 55, was camping out in the wreckage of his house to protect it from looters, armed with a gun.
Hurricane Irma lashed St Maarten with winds in excess of 225 miles per hour causing massive destruction
Around the many marinas on the island, millions of pounds worth of private yachts have been damaged or destroyed
Cars were picked up by the winds which reached 225 miles per hour as Hurricane Irma lashed the Caribbean island
Supermarkets which suffered extreme damage were later looted by people searching for food before aid arrived
‘After the storm, a box came floating on the water to me,’ he told MailOnline. ‘God sent it to me. Inside was some flares, a fishing kit and a lifeboat tent. Now that has become my home-inside-a-home.
‘Our roof was torn off so everything gets soaked when it rains. I spend the night in this tent with my two friends: my gun and my radio.’
He had already used the weapon to deter looters, he said. ‘In the middle of the night, I heard the gate moving and saw a man coming up the stairs,’ he said. ‘I got my gun and as soon as he saw the nickel and chrome, he did a circle and ran off. He vanished so quickly I thought he had flown away.’
Mr Marcus and his wife, Maureen de la Friente, 52, had their lives saved by a mattress when the hurricane hit last Tuesday night. The roof of their house was ripped off and everything inside their home began to fly about in the 225mph winds.
‘We grabbed our two chihuahuas and our son and lay on the floor under the mattress,’ Mr Marcus told MailOnline. ‘The dogs were panting and trembling with fear. We were terrified.
‘When the roof went, the hurricane came inside the house. Everything started flying. Chunks of brick and concrete were thudding on the mattress, which saved our lives for sure. The hurricane door, which is supposed to protect us, shot off and ended up inside the stove.’
Their son, Kytho Marcus, 21, said that the family were forced to shower at a burst pipe down the road, along with the rest of the local community.
‘We’ve had our own bathroom for our entire lives and now we’re forced to have a shower with an audience of 30 people,’ he said.
Hurricane Irma knocked out power on the island which has left frozen meat to rot and be devoured by maggots
Aid supplies have been arriving on the island a week after the hurricane destroyed thousands of homes
Relatives of the family, who live in Holland, are constantly asking them to join the thousands of other residents fleeing the disaster zone to set up a new life in a safer country.
‘My family wants us to go back to Holland or Surinam,’ Mrs de la Friente said. ‘But we refuse to go. We are not like that. We are not begging. We would prefer to die from hunger than beg.’
Down the road from their wrecked house, the Audi showroom was taking an urgent inventory to establish how many vehicles had been stolen or damaged during the hurricane.
Outside was a brand new, black Audi TT which had been dented and scratched by the storm. Its windscreen had also been smashed.
‘It feels like my babies have been damaged,’ said Dylan Smith, 37, the brand and logistics manager at the showroom.
‘Some people care more about cars than about humans, more even than their family. This car is worth $65,000 and it has sustained $6,000 worth of damage.’
He added: ‘It’s not fun and games, that’s for sure. But we are all helping each other, and we will get through this.’