Hurricane Irma brought devastation to the Caribbean island of St. Martin – leveling the island’s strongest buildings and leaving ‘rustic’ structures like President Trump’s mansion in grave danger.
‘We know that the four most solid buildings on the island have been destroyed, which means that more rustic structures have probably been completely or partially destroyed,’ said French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, AFP reported.
Eight people have been reported dead on the island after it took a direct hit from Irma.
Ninety-five per cent of the French side of the island has been destroyed, a local official, said, with enormous damage to the side administered by the Dutch government.
President Donald Trump tweeted there was ‘No rest for the weary!’ as Hurricane Irma made its way toward the U.S. ‘Rustic’ buildings like his mansion on the island of St. Martin were probably completely or partially destroyed, said the French
The fate of Trump’s beachfront mansion, which recently had its price dropped to $16.9 million, was unknown Thursday morning.
A Trump organization spokeswoman said company officials had been monitoring the situation of the five-acre estate, which features a pool and a mansion.
‘All of the proper precautions and protections have been implemented and right now we are just praying for all those in the path of Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean and beyond,’ Trump Organization spokeswoman Amanda Miller said in a statement, the Washington Post reported.
Dutch Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk said he briefly had contact with Saint Martin’s prime minister but communications are sporadic. He said nine patients at a hospital in the country had been evacuated by Dutch military helicopter.
Hurricane Irma has caused “enormous damage” to the Dutch side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, the Dutch Royal Navy said on Thursday. The navy, which has two ships stationed off the coast of the island, tweeted images gathered by helicopter showing damaged houses, hotels and boats.
Astonishing images show the scale of the destruction on the island of St. Maarten in the aftermath of a direct hit by Category 5 Hurricane Irma
Even as it sat idly on the market, it generated up to $1 million for the company owned by the president between January 2016 and April 2017.
Other Trump properties could sustain damage as well, depending on what path Irma takes.
Trump’s signature Mar-a-Lago resort, which Trump calls his ‘southern White House’ could also come under threat, as could golf properties in West Palm Beach, Doral, and Jupiter, Florida.
Astonishing images show the scale of the destruction on the island of St. Martin in the aftermath of a direct hit by Category 5 Hurricane Irma.
Video, shot from a Dutch Defense Ministry navy helicopter sent to assess damage Wednesday evening, shows seafront hotels – a mainstay of the Caribbean island’s economy – with their roofs badly damaged, palm trees stripped of fronds and poolside terraces covered in sand.
Streets were largely deserted and littered with debris. At a port area, shipping containers were strewn like children’s building blocks. Elsewhere, yachts were shown jumbled together in a small harbor, some overturned or dumped, upside down, onto the shore.
Irma has caused ‘huge damage’ to St Martin, devastating its airport and port and leaving the Dutch part of the Caribbean island unreachable, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
‘Alas, the island is not reachable at this point because of the huge damage to the airport and the harbour,’ Rutte told reporters, though he added there were no reports of deaths on the Dutch side so far. French authorities say at least nine lives have been lost on the French side.
Trump put himself back in hurricane mode Wednesday as Hurricane Irma smashed through the Caribbean on a track that could take it to Florida.
Just days after making efforts to oversee preparations and response efforts for Hurricane Harvey, which wreaked destruction over southeast Texas, Trump tweeted about his storm team and spoke about it in a meeting with congressional leaders.
And as the nation braced for another hit, Trump faced the prospect of sustaining damage to his own holdings.
‘We’ll see what happens. We’ll know in a very short period of time, but looks like it could be something that would be not good. Believe me, not good,’ Trump said in the Oval Office.
‘We had the congressional leaders with us today and we have a lot to discuss, including the fact that there is a new and seems to be record-breaking hurricane heading right toward Florida and Puerto Rico and other places,’ Trump said Wednesday morning as he sat down with lawmakers.
Trump tweeted earlier Wednesday. ‘Watching Hurricane closely. My team, which has done, and is doing, such a good job in Texas, is already in Florida,’ he wrote.
He added: ‘No rest for the weary!’
In another tweet, he wrote, ‘Hurricane looks like largest ever recorded in the Atlantic!’
Trump also relied on Twitter to show the nation that he was on top of Harvey as it barreled toward Texas.
‘BELIEVE ME, NOT GOOD’: Trump spoke about Hurricane Irma as it headed for the British Virgin Islands with a track that could take it to Cuba and the Florida coast
He tracked the storm from Camp David in August, met with his security team, and made a trip to Austin and Corpus Christie after it blasted Texas, leaving much of Houston underwater.
‘After witnessing first hand the horror & devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey,my heart goes out even more so to the great people of Texas!’ Trump wrote in a tweet last month following his initial visit, although he was criticized for not having actually met storm victims on his initial journey.
Vice President Mike Pence looks on as President Donald Trump speaks to, from left, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., during a meeting with Congressional leaders in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017
As with Harvey, Trump remarked on the hurricane’s historic dimensions
The president tweeted that his team was doing ‘such a good job in Texas’ and was ‘already in Florida’ in advance of the storm
As Major Hurricane Irma churns across the western Atlantic and towards the United States, residents along the Gulf and East coasts of the U.S. should prepare now for potential impacts.Category 5 Hurricane Irma will blast the northern Caribbean with flooding rain, damaging winds and rough surf through midweek, bringing life-threatening conditions to the islands
Trump owns a $28 million property on St. Martin that could be impacted
Trump owns a $28 million property on St. Martin that could be impacted
President Donald J Trump shakes hands with Col. Gary Jones, commander of the 147th Attack Wing, upon his arrival on Air Force One to Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseUS President Donald Trump visits Hurricane Harvey victims, Houston, Texas
A man tears out Hurricane Harvey flood damage from a home in southwestern Houston, Texas, U.S. September 2, 2017
US President Donald Trump visits Hurricane Harvey victime at NRG Center in Houston on September 2, 2017