||| 1 News Now |||
The famous airport known for the low flyovers of its jets in St. Maarten has been destroyed by Hurricane Irma. Hurricane Irma is the largest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic and has already destroyed 90% of Barbuda in the Caribbean. A video uploaded to YouTube shows the tremendous force of the category 5 hurricane ravaging St. Maarten. More images of the destruction show Princess Juliana airport to be flooded with debris and pieces of building scattered everywhere.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dA5qYrboTUE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Once a tourist hot spot, the beach airport now sits in ruin. St Maarten is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as it shares an island with the French territory of St Martin just east of Puerto Rico. Ronald Plasterk, the Dutch Interior Minister says the damage from Hurricane Irma is "enormous". In fact, Plasterk says the damage "is so major that we don't yet have a full picture, also because contact is difficult at the moment."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The aftermath of St.Maarten's airport. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IrmaHurricane?src=hash">#IrmaHurricane</a> <a href="https://t.co/1cJsOGSzFD">pic.twitter.com/1cJsOGSzFD</a></p>— RickyV™ (@SxM_Ricky) <a href="https://twitter.com/SxM_Ricky/status/905477675791392769">September 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Dutch Caribbean coast guard have even lost communication with their base in St Maarten according to a spokesman, Roderick Gouverneur. The famous Princess Juliana airport has been featured in many films and TV shows as jets pass directly over the beach when landing. The planes often appear so low it prompts many visitors to duck.
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/9ff3a56608f215d704f3ac146650c47d7d2d4259d3796711598a19067be9b455.jpg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: Stuff Travel</span>
The Dutch Interior Minister says it is unclear at this time if there have been casualties. There are currently 100 troops helping local authorities to assess the extent of the damages now that the storm has finally passed. There are also two navy ships heading to the island to offer help to the disaster stricken island.
<i>On Twitter:</i>
<a href="https://twitter.com/ErvinProduction">@ErvinProduction</a>
Tips? Info? Send me a message!
