Before and After Photos of Hurricane Irma’s Destruction Across St. Martin

If you’ve turned on the news, or even looked at Twitter over the last couple of days, you know that Hurricane Irma is on a destructive path through the Caribbean islands.

The Category 5 hurricane is one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in recorded history, and the catastrophe left in its wake is proving just that. Islands like Barbuda and St. Martin have been torn apart by the 185 mph winds.

To show just how dangerous this storm has become, BBC News released photos and video footage of St. Martin, before and after Irma came through.

As you can see in the video clip, St. Martin is typically a beautiful island, filled with blue water, healthy trees, and plenty of hotels. However, that all changed when Irma hit.

In the “after” photos, everything looks grey and dull. Cars and boats are scattered around, the roofs are missing from buildings, and several smaller structures are left barely standing.

Looking at the trees is one way to see how truly powerful this storm was. The ones that are still standing are no longer green or full, but they have been permanently bent in the direction that the winds pushed them. The leaves look tattered and black, and it’s a hauntingly accurate symbol of what Irma did to the island.