People Remembers Irma's Wrath; British Virgins Islands Finally Gets Aid Assistance; Elites Hand in Hand for Hurricane Victims.
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The Caribbean needs help after Irma ravaged a series of popular islands. Thirty-eight people were killed when Irma plowed through as a category 5 storm. Many people are running low on food, water, gasoline and other essentials. European countries are starting to deliver some aid after they were criticized for not doing enough fast enough. This is one of the destruction of St. Martin, one of the islands that is reported significant looting. The situation there is desperate. The north is administrated by France, the south by the Netherlands. Both were leveled when Irma roared for the Caribbean as a category 5 hurricane as we mentioned. Just look at the rubble the storm left behind across the island. Our Cyril Vanier reports St. Martin's residents are anxious for aid to get there.</s>CYRIL VANIER, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: I want to show you the first impression you get when you get to St. Martin. We're on the Dutch side right now and when the sun sets. This is it. There's no light. There's little power on the island right now. So all along down that street, there's an insurance, there's a pizzeria, there is furniture store and many other stores. Only two of them still have a light that's running. We're actually very fortunate because the biggest newspaper on the island, the Daily Herald, has agreed to let us sleep here. They've got power. They are one of the rare people, for them, the power is working. So the power company is actually going house-to-house, one by one, they've got to make sure there are no live wires before they turn it on. We're very fortunate. But let me show you a couple of things that are absolutely necessary right in St. Martin. This is a generator. The few lights that are on in the island, either they are one of the fortunate ones that have the power turned back on, or they have a generator. If they have a generator, then they need some of this. They need the gasoline. But the gas stations they're all closed. And that buys you in this building about two hours of power. Let me show you this way. So these are the guys who are -- have allowed us to stay here. And that's the only reason we can even put this broadcast out there. One of the few things -- Tom, I know you're camera-shy. I know you didn't want to talk about this. But when you talk to people, this is what happens. Where -- why are you sleeping here?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The roof of my house is gone.</s>VANIER: You can't sleep in your house anymore?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once it gets better fixed I will. But yes, but that's going to be a while.</s>VANIER: All right. So for the moment, Tom is one of the very -- one of the many, many people whose homeless and you can put it that way. And he's sleeping here with his wife. He's one of the sports sections of the paper. Let me show you this. This is the lifeline. I was telling you about the gasoline, we consider that this is about two hours of power. And with everything that's been filled up, we have maybe two days of power. Once that goes out, not much we can do. And this is the printing press. They can't print anymore because this requires water. There's no water. It's essentially what the Dutch marines are giving you in terms of water. This is the last newspaper they printed on Tuesday. It was the day before the hurricane hit. And this is the headline. Businesses must close at noon. Curfew, 8 p.m. Now with all this, there's one glimmer of hope, which is we've learned now, that tomorrow, two things are going to reopen that are key to a normal functioning life here in St. Martin. And that is supermarkets. A couple of supermarkets have said that they are reopening on Wednesday. That's going to bring up great relief if they do open to the population of St. Martin. And gas stations, as well. A couple of them have warned that they would reopen. There will be security to ensure that it's done in an orderly fashion. It's is the very, very beginning of life restarting in St. Martin.</s>CHURCH: Cyril Vanier reporting there. And French President Emmanuel Macron is pledging to rebuild the French territories devastated by hurricane Irma in the Caribbean. He visited St. Martin on Tuesday to survey the devastation firsthand. Officials say 95 percent of the island was destroyed. Mr. Macron assured residents that life will eventually return to normal.</s>EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): The days that follow are the days for returning to normal life and for reconstructing. And it's important that as many people as possible, everyone who can and who wants to, stays on the island of St. Martin. And I say this because St. Martin has a future, one that needs to be reconstructed. And today, we should think about reconstruction in the short, medium and long-term.</s>CHURCH: The storm left many of the Caribbean islands unrecognizable. Some people in the British Virgin Islands lost everything and are now all but stranded. But CNN's Polo Sandoval reports there are glimmers of hope on the island of Tortola.</s>POLO SANDOVAL, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: When you think you've seen some of the worst damage caused by hurricane Irma, you come here to the largest island in the British Virgin Islands. And you can see the devastation is widespread here on Tortola. You can see what's left of one of the marinas here. This is certainly one of the hardest-hit regions. People here had been struggling to find food, to find water. However, supplies are slowly making their way here. And also neighboring Caribbean islands that have been hard hit. Many of the residents that call some of those places home have had to evacuate to nearby Puerto Rico, the United States. Many people who live here are trying to make it back to the U.K. But we've also heard some remarkable stories of survival. People who have essentially had to huddle inside their homes to ride out the storm. And then had to scrap whatever they can to try to eat and drink. And that is the reality for many people here. Resources are slowly but surely making their way to some of these regions that were devastated by hurricane Irma nearly a week ago. But it certainly not at the rate that many locals would like to see it happen. What does stand out after our time here in the Caribbean have -- has been the resilience for many of the people here who are determined to clean up. They were determined to rebuild. And they are particularly determined to get their piece of paradise back. But for now, the reality if that long road to recovery, people are just getting started on that journey. Reporting on the Island of Tortola, Polo Sandoval,</s>CNN. CHURCH: The United Kingdom is defending its response to Irma in the Caribbean. The U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is visiting British territories there after the British government was criticized for not moving quickly enough to help victims.</s>FOREIGN SECRETARY: We have every sympathy for the suffering of the people who are being hit by this extraordinary hurricane, the biggest in 150 years. So, I think most fair-minded people looking at the deployment that the U.K. has made. This is the biggest military deployment that we've seen since Libya. The point that -- the message that we want to give. The reason I'm here is as far as secretaries, because of course these are our, these are overseas territories, these are British people, work here to show our support, not just for the short-term, but for the long-term.</s>CHURCH: And CNN's Nina Dos Santos joins us now live from London. Good to see you, Nina. So, politicians from both major parties say Britain's response to hurricane Irma in the Caribbean has been found wanting. That's pretty telling, isn't it? Why was Britain so slow to respond? And what all is it sending so far?</s>NINA DOS SANTOS, CORRESPPONDENT, CNN: Well, the foreign office and the British government at number 10 have been saying that people have to remember that these aren't the same types of jurisdictions that France's Emmanuel Macron, the French President is dealing with where territories like French Guadeloupe and St. Martin are actually part of French territories. These countries, in particular, the British Virgin Islands they are actually part of the British overseas territories and they are self- governing which means that the U.K. doesn't have the same military infrastructure, permanent military infrastructure out in this region from which it can deploy military personnel and also the badly needed food and water items, water purification tablets, and so on and so forth. Having said that, though, the government has earmarked about $41 million worth of relief aid. They've already deployed about 1,000 military personnel across this British overseas territories in the Caribbean to help specifically with the relief effort. And also there are about 50 police officers who have been sent from the U.K. to help shore up security in islands like, for instance, Tortola, that you heard Polo Sandoval reporting from before. Where obviously, there's big concerns about issues like looting, and so on and so forth. And there will be more aid on its way from here. HMS Ocean, which is a big ship that is set sail from Gibraltar carrying about 50,000 water purification tablets, 5,000 hygiene kits and 10,000 buckets for collecting rainwater so that people can drink something clean. That is on its way over towards these islands. But of course, it will take about 10 days to get there. So in the meantime, what we've had is government ministers like Boris Johnson turning up, albeit a day later than France since the king of the Netherlands and the French president. And they're probably going to have to try and rely on places like the United States to mobilize food aid, to buy food aid over from the mainland in the U.S. to help people who need water, food, and medical supplies before the U.K. can manage to get them over from Europe. Rosemary?</s>CHURCH: Yes. Ten days is a long time when you're in need. Many thanks for that live report. Nina Dos Santos joining us from London, where it is nearly 8.30 in the morning. Marco Island, Florida, was also pummeled by hurricane Irma. Coming up, we will talk to a resident about how she rode out the storm alone. Back in a moment with that.