Satellite photos show how Hurricane Irma denuded entire Caribbean islands

Hurricane Irma, now a tropical depression, left much of Florida and parts of Georgia and South Carolina drenched or underwater and without power on Monday, but back when it was a Category 5 hurricane out in the Atlantic, it absolutely decimated several Caribbean Islands. A new time-lapse satellite video from NASA of Irma moving from the mid-Atlantic to Florida shows how the hurricane passed directly over some islands, like Barbuda, and raked others with its long outer bands.

YouTube

Watch On

NASA also released before-and-after photos of some of the islands, highlighting how Irma turned tropical paradises into brown rocks.

BuzzFeed News picked out one of the islands, Virgin Gorda, for a close-up:

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

You can view higher-resolution photos at NASA Earth Observatory, and before-and-after photos of leveled Caribbean towns at BuzzFeed. At least 38 people died from Irma in the Caribbean and 10 deaths have been reported in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.