Video Shows St. Maarten's Maho Beach Decimated By Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma whipped through the Caribbean island of St. Martin this week, bringing with it driving rain and winds of up to 185 mph. Video posted Wednesday showed the Category 5 storm decimating the island’s Maho Beach with catastrophic winds and rain.

St. Maarten constitutes the Dutch half of the Caribbean island of St. Martin.One of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes ever, Irma slammed into St. Martin with vicious force. Rain and wind shown in the video are so forceful that visibility is near zero.

Maho Beach is situated near the island’s famed Princess Juliana Airport. Photographs revealed a decimated landscape: downed trees, debris and shattered airplane parts littered a region inundated with flood waters. Sand from the beach washed up into the main terminal, while the building’s roof was “extensively damaged,” the Associated Press reported.

Eight people were killed as a result of the hurricane in both St. Martin and St. Bart, while one person died in Barbuda and another in Antigua, initial reports stated. French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told reporters that the four strongest structures on St. Martin were devastated, meaning most others were likely destroyed as well.

“It is an enormous disaster,” Daniel Gibbs, chairman of a local council on St. Martin, told Radio Caribbean International. “Ninety-five percent of the island is destroyed. I am in shock.”

The Dutch military sent at least 100 soldiers to the island to help with relief.

“The priority now is to bring emergency aid to the people,” said Dutch Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk. “Consisting of sending food and water to 40,000 people over the coming five days.”