Hurricane Irma triggers financial, military support

The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) said it was in the process of providing emergency relief grants to borrowing member countries affected by Hurricane Irma.

The CDB said in a statement it was issuing the grants to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Amounting to US$200,000 each, the grants will finance relief supplies, water and sanitation resources as well as roofing and emergency shelters.

The CBD has also offered up to US$750,000 in immediate response loans, "available on highly concessionary terms", designed to support the clearing and cleaning of damaged areas.

The funds would be in addition to the US$150,000 granted to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) ahead of the storm's impact, designated for mobilization and coordination of relief efforts.

Security concerns sparking European response

Serious safety problems are mounting in the aftermath of Irma on the hardest hit islands, particularly in the overseas territories of the UK, France and Holland, sparking criticism that relief efforts are not activating quickly enough.

Prison break on British Virgin Islands

In a BBC report, UK foreign office minister Alan Duncan confirmed the escape of more than 100 prisoners in the British Virgin Islands, adding there had been a "serious threat of the complete breakdown of law and order."

(Pictured: A handout picture released by the UK defense ministry on Sunday, showing Royal Marines talking to a local resident in Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands amid the destruction left by Irma.)

Duncan said some 500,000 British nationals had been in the path of the storm and that five had died in the British Virgin Islands and four in Anguilla.

According to the BBC report, the UK government has in response sent nearly 1,000 soldiers and 47 police officers to the British Virgin Islands, and 250 more soldiers are scheduled for deployment. Foreign secretary Boris Johnson was en route to the Caribbean amid criticism of a "too slow" response, and Johnson said there would soon be an announcement of aid additional to the £32mn (US$42.5mn) already pledged.

Irma also affected British protectorates Turks and Caicos - where the storm ripped off roofs, flooded streets and caused major power loss on Grand Turk. And Montserrat only experienced a glancing blow with less serious damage, according to the BBC.

Dutch government reacts to St. Maarten destruction

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk surveyed Irma's damage on a vist to Holland's Caribbean dependencies Monday, according to Dutch media outlet NL Times.

"I've never seen anything like this, everywhere you look you see destruction and upheaval," said the monarch, on arrival to Sint Maarten, the Dutch side of the island shared with France's St. Martin, which also saw severe damage. The report said the king also visited Sint Eustatius and Saba.

Suffering the greatest damage, Sint Maarten's recovery effort will probably take one or two years, according to deputy island minister Henrietta Doran-York.

A report from the AP said some 450 Dutch soldiers dispatched to the island had begun to get looting under control there, and the UN World Food Program was dispatching food and other aid to the eastern Caribbean.

French and US action

Recovery efforts on the devastated French territories of St. Martin and St. Barts are top priority for the French government, said President Emmanuel Macron at a press conference on Guadeloupe. He added that 1,900 police and troops were on the ground on the islands to ensure security, according to the AP.

That same report said US President Donald Trump was planning a visit to see the damage on the US Virgin Islands, where St. Thomas and St. John were particularly hard hit.