Ex-Jersey residents, including former junior Muratti footballer Bino Campanini, have told how they spent days boarding up their Florida homes before fleeing as the giant hurricane barrelled towards the American state.
And former Islanders in the British Virgin Islands – where numerous Jersey finance and legal firms have offices – have described widespread destruction, with homes reduced to rubble, roads ripped to pieces and communication lines all but lost.
Meanwhile, concern over safety on the island grew over the weekend, following reports of looting and robberies.
Five hundred British troops have now been deployed to the Caribbean, with 120 being stationed in the BVI.
Asked how big the looting problem was in the British Virgin Islands, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: ‘There has been a security issue there and that’s why we’re now prioritising getting armed troops in and police coming in behind them to strengthen the local police force.
‘You can understand the island has been devastated, it’s been difficult for people to move around until you get helicopters there, but there are troops now there assisting the Governor to ensure law and order is maintained.’
Rodney Boddy, an Old Victorian who worked at Bedell Cristin and Kleinwort Benson before leaving the Island in 2000, said the BVI had been ‘severely hit’.
Speaking via Facebook and a weak phone line which repeatedly went down, he said: ‘The damage is extensive. The businesses and homes in [the captial] Road Town have been severely hit. Many have lost their homes.
‘Power is all but non existent but I know it is being worked on. No power has the effect of slowing the recovery process.’
Mr Boddy, who moved to the BVI island of Tortola in February last year and is managing director of finance firm Amicorp BVI Ltd, added: ‘The Royal Navy have turned up and are helping out in the state of emergency.
‘On my drive around today the damage to the buildings in Road Town was a sight to see. It is sad to hear there were fatalities.’
Meanwhile, the former managing director of JT in the Channel Islands, Tim Ringsdore, and his wife Shona, were trying to get off Tortola after their home was destroyed.
Their daughter, former Channel 103 presenter Katy, said she and her sister Kelly, who was forced to evacuate her home in Florida as Irma moved in, had put in a request for ships in the area to help with an evacuation.
Dozens of people have been killed or injured by Irma, which has left some Caribbean islands barely habitable.
Former Bailiff’s Secretary David Filliponi, who now lives in Florida with his wife Kathryn, said that water and fuel supplies in the area had ‘all but run out’.
