Caribbean braces for catastrophic Hurricane Irma

The Caribbean is bracing for potentially catastrophic damage from Hurricane Irma, as multiple areas hit hard by last year's Matthew now lie in the path of what may be an even greater threat.

Early on Sept. 5, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded the storm to a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, indicating wind speeds above 252km/hr; however by early that afternoon local time, the storm was packing sustained winds of 288km/hr as it neared the northeastern Leeward Islands.

The NHC reported that the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Bahamas and Turks and Caicos lie next in the storm's path, with Cuba and Florida likely targets thereafter.

Reported in local media outlet Tribune 242, Bahamas deputy prime minister K.P. Turnquest said the government feared "another dramatic financial blow to the Bahamian economy, matching Matthew's US$600mn damage from a year ago."

The report noted that Matthew struck as a category 3 or 4 storm, causing approximately US$400mn in insured losses. Irma is expected to hit the Bahamas on Sept. 8 as a category 5 hurricane. However, wind speeds are expected to have slowed moderately.

A Willis Re survey of Matthew's impact on LAC territories found estimated insured losses between US$600mn and US$2bn.

The current projected path for Irma has the system passing largely north of Haiti, which suffered more than 1,000 deaths from Matthew.