DutchNews, September 11, 2017
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| Fresh water supplies reach Saba. Photo: Ministerie van Defensie / Gerben van Es / Hollandse Hoogte |
King Willem-Alexander will visit the hurricane-hit Caribbean island of
Sint Maarten on Monday as part of a short visit to meet locals and assess the
relief effort.
The king and home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk arrived on
Curaçao on Sunday where they were briefed about the aid effort so far. They also
visited a hospital to meet people who had been injured when hurricane Irma
lashed the former Dutch colony last week.
‘I’m here in the first place to find
out what has happened so far and what the coordination from Curaçao has done,’
the king told local media. ‘The only message I have so far is that we realise
what has happened to you and we are doing our best to help everyone who needs
it. You can count on our help.’
The evacuation of people injured by the
hurricane has been completed and holidaymakers are now being brought out, news
agency ANP said. It is unclear how many tourists are on the island.
The US has
evacuated some 3,000 tourists and American nationals who live there.
Soldiers
Plasterk said he is impressed by what the police and military have achieved so
far. He dismissed claims that the Netherlands has not done enough by pointing
out that hundreds of people had already been dispatched to the islands before
the hurricane hit.
On Monday, fresh water will be distributed to people left
without water supplies and equipment to turn sea water into drinking water is
also being flown in. Some 550 Dutch soldiers are in the region to help with the
relief effort.
On the smaller islands of Saba and Sint Eustatius, which were
not as badly hit as Sint Maarten, the roads have now been cleared of debris and
made passable again, ANP said.
Meanwhile, prime minister Mark Rutte told a news
conference on Sunday that the death toll in the Dutch half of the island has
risen to four, including two unidentified bodies which were washed ashore.
Trots op mijn staf en tijdelijke augmentees die 24/7 een topproduct neerzetten. Hartverwarmende aandacht voor onze inzet. @Defensie #Irma pic.twitter.com/G9jTVVFwIA— Peter Jan de Vin (@C_ZMCARIB) September 11, 2017
French President Emmanuel Macron joins the Dutch monarch for a tour of the hurricane-hit islands of St Martin and St Barts pic.twitter.com/teY6NwjRsR— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 12, 2017
An aerial view of Hurricane Irma's destruction of Saint Martin pic.twitter.com/cKYFimcFVs— AFP news agency (@AFP) September 12, 2017
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