Police patrol the area as Hurricane Irma slams across islands in the northern Caribbean on Wednesday, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sept. 6, 2017. (Photo/Agencies)
At least 10 deaths have been reported by Thursday morning as Hurricane Irma slashed its way through the Caribbean towards the United States.
The latest deaths occurred in Puerto Rico, where its governor Ricardo Rossello reported Thursday morning the death of three people by the passage of the rare Category 5 hurricane with high winds and heavy rains.
Four bodies were recovered on the Caribbean French-Dutch island of Saint Martin, said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who lowered the death toll of eight deaths previously given by local rescue officials.
One person was killed on the island of Anguilla, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean, and roads there were blocked, with damage to the hospital and airport, power and phone service, Anguilla emergency service officials said.
The island of Barbuda, one of the first hit by the hurricane, was "totally destroyed," said Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, adding that one person was killed and hundreds of people had to live in shelters now with substantial damages caused by the storm on the tiny two-island nation.
In Barbuda, 90 percent of the buildings were destroyed and the losses were estimated at billions of dollars, said Gaston Browne.
It is reported that a surfer was also killed in Barbados.
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), the eye of the hurricane will move on to the northern coast of Caribbean Island Hispaniola and the southeast of the Bahamas later Thursday.
