UK boosts aid budget for Irma, sends two warships

Britain is sending two military vessels to help victims of Hurricane Irma and is earmarking £32 million ($41.8 million, 34.8 million euros) in aid, the government said Thursday.

Prime Minister Theresa May announced an increase in aid from an initial budget of £12 million following an emergency cabinet meeting.

The British fleet auxiliary Mounts Bay, carrying 40 Royal Marines, is already in the Caribbean region and will be joined by HMS Ocean, which is departing from the Mediterranean carrying a number of helicopters.

British medical advisers, reconstruction staff and Royal Marines will be taking part in relief efforts.

Hurricane Irma -- one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record -- has hit the Caribbean with deadly force, turning the tropical islands of Barbuda and St Martin into mountains of rubble.

The Department for International Development (DFID) and the Foreign Office are on "full alert," junior foreign minister Alan Duncan told parliament.

Charter flights with additional supplies also stand ready.

Foreign Minister Boris Johnson reaffirmed the UK's commitment to respond to the "catastrophic damage" caused by Irma.

May also held a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, during which they agreed to coordinate responses also with Dutch authorities.

Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip said they were "shocked and saddened" by the reports of devastation in Antigua and Barbuda.

The queen is the two-island-nation's reigning monarch.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with all those whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed or adversely affected by this terrible storm," the statement from Buckingham Palace said.

According to the foreign office, there are currently 88,000 British citizens in the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos islands.

British Airways said flights to and from the region "will be affected over the next two days and into the weekend".

Travel group Thomas Cook said in a statement on Thursday that as instructed by Cuban authorities, they would be evacuating customers currently in the resorts of Cayo Coco, Cayo Guillermo and Cayo Santa.

Irma has been packing maximum sustained winds of up to 185 mph (295 kph).

Its projected path sees it hitting the northern edges of the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday, continuing past eastern Cuba before veering north for Florida.

source: AFP