Social media footage gives glimpse of Hurricane Irma damage

Social media footage is beginning to show the extent of the damage caused by category 5 hurricane Irma as it tore through the Atlantic Basin, ravaging parts of the Caribbean with winds of up to 185 mph.

With news cameras still struggling to reach the worst hit areas, Twitter and Instagram videos from people in the British Virgin Islands offer the best way to witness the effects of the storm.

#irma bvi pic.twitter.com/nd2BlKtNSC— Loriann Briggs (@briggsoto) 6 September 2017


One video obtained from Twitter shows the hurricane battering a woman’s house in Tortola, where cars, trees, debris from houses and even boats could be seen strewn across the streets.

One social media user said the storm felt like a “nuclear attack that went on for five hours”.

#irma, #bvi, #HurricaineIrma bedroom destroyed, #airbnb pic.twitter.com/WkS1roKErz— Loriann Briggs (@briggsoto) 6 September 2017


Footage of a harbour shows boats wrecked by a storm the size of France that passed over an island of less than a hundred square kilometres.

Homes and hospitals were flattened in Barbuda, St. Martin and the U.S. Virgin Islands and the hurricane has already claimed at least 23 lives.

#irma, #afterirma marina pic.twitter.com/MYSKEcMbgk— Loriann Briggs (@briggsoto) 7 September 2017