Richard Branson, the investor and philanthropist who founded Virgin Group, has shared a video this week showing the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma.
The 67-year-old billionaire takes us to his private island and home in the British Virgin Islands. Necker Island acts as a private luxury resort that can accommodate up to 34 guests. The category 5 hurricane made landfall on September 6, 2017 and destroyed nearly everything.
“I have never seen anything like this hurricane. Necker and the whole area have been completely and utterly devastated,” Branson said in an interview with Business Insider.
Branson shared his reaction to the storm on his blog last week,
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.
I am writing from Puerto Rico, where I have traveled in order to further mobilize 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.
The UK government will have a massive role to play in the recovery of its territories affected by Irma – both through short-term aid and long-term infrastructure spending.
The region needs a ‘Disaster Recovery Marshall Plan’ for the BVI and other territories that will aid in recovery, sustainable reconstruction and long-term revitalization of the local economy.
Our thoughts are with all the people and regions hit by Hurricane Irma, and all those in the US communities currently facing the storm.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll have to assess exactly what is needed. It is clear to me creating jobs is paramount – there will be a huge amount of rebuilding to be done and people will need work to help rebuild their lives as well as their homes.
See the damage in detail with the video.
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h/t Nicer Days