- Joined
- Jan 14, 2008
- Messages
- 63,410
Source- ABC
For the first time in three centuries, there is no one living on the island of Barbuda.
All 1,700 residents have evacuated to the sister-island of Antigua following Hurricane Irma, the Category 5 storm
that damaged an estimated 95 percent of the structures on the island. The island nation f
aced heavy rain and winds earlier this week as a result of Hurricane Maria, a Category
4 storm, which made landfall in Puerto Rico Wednesday.
“For now, there is just the focus on relief, and recovery efforts and of course beyond that will be the broader
discussion of a rebuilding and reconstruction of a new Barbuda. It will pretty much take a rebuilding of the island,”
said Garfield Burford, an ABS Television/Radio director of news, told NBC News.
Image: Pigs scrounge through the remnants of a grocery store and clothing store one week after
Hurricane Irma wiped out Barbuda's infrastructure.
Pigs scrounge through the remnants of a grocery store and clothing store one week after
Hurricane Irma wiped out Barbuda's infrastructure. With its residents evacuated,
an array of free-roaming animals now search for food amongst the rubble. Vaughn Hillyard / NBC News
That rebuilding is expected to come at a steep price tag: between $250 million and $300 million —
money the island nation's ambassador says they could afford if the U.S. paid what it owes as the result of a
14 year trade dispute over online gambling.
When online gambling became popularized, some companies located on the island nation.
When the U.S. began cracking down on many of the sites' operators as part of a broader
focus on restricting American online gaming, Barbuda said those efforts had a negative impact on its own economy.
In 2004, the World Trade Organization ruled that the U.S. had violated trade agreements by not
allowing online betting from websites hosted in Antigua and Barbuda. An appellate body upheld
the same decision the following year.
An arbitrator measured Antigua and Barbuda’s losses at $21 million a year and, because the country did
not receive payments from the U.S., they were permitted to circumvent American intellectual
property rights to cover their losses, according to the WTO.
Antigua and Barbuda have an annual GDP of $1.5 billion.
For the first time in three centuries, there is no one living on the island of Barbuda.
All 1,700 residents have evacuated to the sister-island of Antigua following Hurricane Irma, the Category 5 storm
that damaged an estimated 95 percent of the structures on the island. The island nation f
aced heavy rain and winds earlier this week as a result of Hurricane Maria, a Category
4 storm, which made landfall in Puerto Rico Wednesday.
“For now, there is just the focus on relief, and recovery efforts and of course beyond that will be the broader
discussion of a rebuilding and reconstruction of a new Barbuda. It will pretty much take a rebuilding of the island,”
said Garfield Burford, an ABS Television/Radio director of news, told NBC News.
Image: Pigs scrounge through the remnants of a grocery store and clothing store one week after
Hurricane Irma wiped out Barbuda's infrastructure.
Pigs scrounge through the remnants of a grocery store and clothing store one week after
Hurricane Irma wiped out Barbuda's infrastructure. With its residents evacuated,
an array of free-roaming animals now search for food amongst the rubble. Vaughn Hillyard / NBC News
That rebuilding is expected to come at a steep price tag: between $250 million and $300 million —
money the island nation's ambassador says they could afford if the U.S. paid what it owes as the result of a
14 year trade dispute over online gambling.
When online gambling became popularized, some companies located on the island nation.
When the U.S. began cracking down on many of the sites' operators as part of a broader
focus on restricting American online gaming, Barbuda said those efforts had a negative impact on its own economy.
In 2004, the World Trade Organization ruled that the U.S. had violated trade agreements by not
allowing online betting from websites hosted in Antigua and Barbuda. An appellate body upheld
the same decision the following year.
An arbitrator measured Antigua and Barbuda’s losses at $21 million a year and, because the country did
not receive payments from the U.S., they were permitted to circumvent American intellectual
property rights to cover their losses, according to the WTO.
Antigua and Barbuda have an annual GDP of $1.5 billion.
