The Dutch prime minister says Category 5 Hurricane Irma was a storm of epic proportions when it slammed into the former Dutch colony of Saint Maarten in the Caribbean.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the damage is huge, and there is no power or running water -- adding inhabitants are sitting in the dark, in ruined houses, cut off from the outside world.
The U-K government, meantime, says Irma has inflicted severe damage to the British overseas territory of Anguilla, which took the full force of the storm.
Irma is expected to hit another British overseas territory, Turks and Caicos, later today
At least one person has died in the northeast Caribbean island of Anguilla, raising the death toll of Hurricane Irma to at least 10 as the storm roars through the region.
The Caribbean Disaster Management Agency reported the death early Thursday and said 90 per cent of roads in Anguilla are impassable.
Meanwhile, in the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katia has prompted a hurricane warning in Mexico in the state of Veracruz.
French President Emmanuel Macron will go to the islands hit by Hurricane Irma as soon as weather conditions permit, after at least eight people died on Saint-Martin.
Macron will travel to France's Caribbean territories as soon as possible once immediate rescue operations are complete.
The president of the territorial council, Daniel Gibbs, says Saint-Martin is 95 per cent destroyed
