British billionaire Richard Branson has revealed the extent of devastation to his luxurious Necker Island home in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
The entrepreneur posted a video online showing how the storm has destroyed his British Virgin Islands home, with buildings blown away and trees ripped from the ground.
The 67-year-old locked himself in his wine cellar as the hurricane, the most powerful to have ever hit the Atlantic, started raging outside on Wednesday.
The tycoon has now travelled to Puerto Rico where he is helping coordinate the effort to deliver aid and a rebuilding plan for the British Virgin Islands.
Writing on his blog, he said: “As you can see from the photos, much of the buildings and vegetation on Necker has been destroyed or badly damaged.
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“We felt the full force of the strongest hurricane ever in the Atlantic Ocean.
“But we are very fortunate to have a strong cellar built into Necker’s Great House and were very lucky all of our teams who stayed on Island during the storm are safe and well.”
He added: “I am writing from Puerto Rico, where I have travelled in order to further mobilise aid efforts and rebuilding plans for the British Virgin Islands and wider Caribbean.
“Communications remain mostly down in the BVI after Hurricane Irma.
“After sharing these updates and talking to various governments, aid agencies and media, we will be heading straight back to the BVI to continue helping the recovery effort on the ground.”
In Puerto Rico mobilising aid efforts for BVI & Caribbean. Comms still largely down in BVI after Hurricane #Irma https://t.co/0USuxvk1dS pic.twitter.com/csq3BsLVdA
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) September 10, 2017
Mr Branson said he and his team have spent the last two days visiting people who live on the island of Gorda, handing out aid and supplies, Dailymail said.
He said the visit showed ‘first-hand just how ferocious and unforgiving” Irma has been.
The billionaire also called on the UK Government to play its part, demanding a “disaster recovery Marshall Plan’ for the British Virgin Islands and other Caribbean islands.
