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By Andrew W Scott
The Caribbean island of Barbuda has been hit by Super Hurricane Irma with the force of a “bomb” going off, its prime minister Gaston Browne told ABC News in the United States on Thursday. Barbuda was hit by Irma on Wednesday (local time), a casualty of Irma’s destructive north-westerly journey through the Caribbean. It is currently tracking straight towards southern Florida.
The Caribbean island was meant to be home to a new US$250 million luxury resort James Packer is building in partnership with Hollywood legend Robert De Niro. The five-star resort includes options for a marina, airport and casino. Packer and De Niro finally received permission to build after overcoming sustained local opposition to resort construction plans. Packer’s Melbourne-based Crown Resorts acquired a 20% stake in De Niro’s company Nobu for US$100 million in 2015.
“Barbuda now is literally rubble,” Prime Minister Browne said, “95% of the structures in Barbuda are damaged … about 20% to 30% are totally demolished. The lone airport cannot accommodate any form of flight. The telecommunication system is totally destroyed.”
With maximum sustained wind speeds of 300 kilometres per hour (185 mph), the category 5 devastating super storm is now officially one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever. The record for maximum sustained wind speeds for an Atlantic hurricane is 305 kilometres per hour (190 mph).
It seems James Packer and Crown Resorts can’t take a trick when it comes to ambitions outside Australia. Apart from Packer’s successful but now-concluded investment in Melco Crown in Macau, which rode the wave of the Macau story over the last 15 years, Packer has failed to establish a successful international casino resort, despite many attempts.
He ditched numerous overseas expansion plans last year after company employees were convicted and jailed for 10 months in China for gambling offences.
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