Sports Illustrated Under Fire For Posting Bikini Pictures From Hurricane-Affected Areas

Sports Illustrated is known for posting sexy pictures of swimsuit models to their Instagram page, but the response they received after the shared photos of cheerleaders in Barbados was not well received. Last week, the Caribbean was decimated by Hurricane Irma. The Category 5 storm left at least 36 people dead, thousands displaced and millions without power.

“The @brooklynettes are making our debut swimwear line look REAL GOOD. _ #BrooklynInBarbados,” Sports Illustrated captioned a group photo of bikini-clad Instagram models Tuesday.

Instagram users lashed back at Sports Illustrated. Posting pictures of models in Barbados right after a hurricane devastated the Caribbean was tasteless, they said.

PHOTOS: 7 Celebrities Who Have Used Nudity To Express Female Empowerment

“What the f is wrong with you people the island is destroyed stop posting this stupid s--- now @si_swimsuit,” one user wrote. “Isn't Barbados destroyed after hurricane Irma?” another asked.

At the time this article was written, Sports Illustrated didn’t respond to the criticism.

They did, however, share a post from Sports Illustrated model Hannah Jeter, who hails from St. Thomas, an island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Right now, the people of the VI are without food, water, shelter, medicine and electricity. They are in bad shape,” Jeter says in the video. “Our community is doing what they can with the very, very little that they have to help one another. But our infrastructure is gone.”

READ: Naked Models Pose As Flight Attendants In ‘Disgusting’ Ad Promoting Travel Site

“The amount of damage done to our island is unimaginable. Our local government is just not equipped to handle the situation on their own,” she continues. “We can't let our islands be forgotten. We have to bring attention to them now. We need help.”

Irma also wreaked havoc on Florida, leaving 6 people dead after Florida nursing home Sunday. They theory is they died because the facility was left without air conditioning.

The cause of death for the residents is being investigated by police. “We are conducting a criminal investigation (and) not ruling anything out at this time,” Hollywood Police Chief Tomas Sanchez said. said at a press conference Wednesday.

Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills, the nursing home where the people died, admitted there was “prolonged power failure to the transformer which powered the facility's air conditioning system as a result of the hurricane.” Three of the residents died in the center and the other three died after they transported to Memorial Healthcare System facilities.

Since then, 115 people were evacuated by firefighters. Some were discovered in critical condition and others were having trouble breathing.

“The loss of these individuals is a profound tragedy,” a statement by the Florida Health Care Association said. “Approximately 150 facilities out of the nearly 700 (nursing) facilities in the state do not currently have full power services restored.”

Follow me on Twitter @mariamzzarella