LONDON: Britain is sending two military transport planes to the Caribbean on Friday to aid victims of Hurricane Irma as the British Virgin Islands declared a state of emergency. In Turks and Caicos, another British territory struck by the hurricane, the disaster agency tweeted: “National shutdown has been declared. One of the ships, fleet auxiliary vessel Mounts Bay, with Royal Marines and army engineers on board, as well as tents and water purifying equipment was due to arrive in the British Virgin Islands on Friday. Dorothea Hodge, a former government in Anguilla, another self-governing British territory, told the Guardian it was “absolutely disgraceful” it had taken so long for London to respond. And barrister Josephine Gumbs-Connor, who also lives there, told BBC radio she was “very disappointed.”Foreign office figures show there are currently 88,000 British citizens in the British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and the Turks and Caicos islands.

Source: New Strait Times September 08, 2017 10:18 UTC