Hurricane Irma has so far claimed the lives of 19 people, according to The New York Times, and one of those lives was that of a toddler who was ripped out of a woman’s hands by the raging winds.
Volunteer Eli Fuller, who runs a boat business on Antigua, used Facebook to share an emotional story of an encounter he had after visiting Barbuda with a vessel of supplies. Fuller shared that when he arrived, one of the first people he encountered was a woman who had lost the child to the storm.
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Fuller said that the woman had her arm around a post after her roof had blown off, with the other arm around the child. The powerful winds ripped the child out her hands and the toddler was unable to be located until the next morning when the child was found dead.
“That was the fatality they had,” Fuller said. “I don’t know how they didn’t have more.”
He also described the destruction he saw on the island.
“It looks like a nuclear bomb’s gone off over there,” he said. “You’re seeing foundations with nothing else, no walls.”
Fuller added that “people were in pretty good spirits, I was surprised.”
Irma is currently carving a path towards Cuba and is expected to head toward Florida over the weekend.
Photo Credit: Facebook / Team Antigua – Atlantic Rowers
