The devastating effect and destruction that Hurricane Irma brought is still being categorized and added up, but these latest photos that came show just how some of the Caribbean islands pulled through this disaster. As you can see the flying salt from the ocean and hurricane-force winds basically blew away the green plants from these islands and turned them in brown spots on the map.
The Hurricane Irma hit the Caribbean last week with the full force of its Category 5 winds, and it devastated islands like Barbuda and St. Martin. It also brought death by killing at least 33 people according to the latest casualty numbers. In the images, we received you can see that now, after the situation and clouds blew over, these islands have been left brown and barren by the hurricane. NASA’s Earth Observatory show us the images before and after Irma, and the result is horrifying.
Most of you will ask the question that is on everyone’s lips – how is it possible that these islands turned from green to brown. The explanation, no matter how horrifying, is quite simple and is explained by Kathryn Hansen who wrote for NASA’s Earth Observatory – the hurricane’s winds were so strong that they literally tore the island’s plant life and left the bare ground exposed to the satellite’s camera, plus there is the salt spray which also dried out the leaves still on the branches, turning them brown. Hansen also explained that island Virgin Gorda, which you see below, snapped by the Landsat 8 satellite after Irma looks a lot brighter and bluer which is probably because the choppy waters are better at scattering light.
Another one, small 68 square mile island of Barbuda, was hit especially hard by the Category 5 hurricane. As you can see in the image below it also suffers from a lot brighter blue sea around it and barren and brown land. Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, called the destruction on the islands “heart-wrenching” and the reason for that is the fact that nearly 95% of the structures on the island has been damaged, at least according to what Time reported.
