Six Months After Hurricane Irma, Communities Remain Crippled (PHOTOS) | The Weather Channel
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Homes remain damaged and economies are crumbled as residents in areas impacted by Irma continue to pick up the pieces.

ByRachel Delia BenaimMarch 5, 2018


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NGO Batisseurs Solidaires members rebuild a house destroyed by the hurricane Irma, in Quartier d'Orleans on February 28, 2018, on the French overseas island of Saint-Martin six months after the passing of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September. (Lionel Chamoiseau/AFP/Getty Images)


It has been six months since deadly Hurricane Irma set its sights on the Caribbean and mainland United States. 

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(More from weather.com: Satellite footage of destroyed Caribbean after Irma)

The storm was the strongest Atlantic hurricane since records were first kept in 1851, raking upwards of $300 billion in total damages, NOAA reports.

Six months later, the people impacted by the devastating storm are still suffering.

The Virgin Islands, which were struck by two Category 5 hurricanes – Irma and Maria – over the course of two weeks, remains crippled. Irma caused as much as three billion dollars in damage and losses to the Virgin Islands, the New Yorker reported, adding that "St. Maarten’s tourism industry—its economic engine—is now anemic" due to the storm. "The mega-resorts that are the country’s largest employers remain closed. Only twenty percent of the country’s hotel rooms are available for use, and many are occupied by aid workers and international contractors."

“The residents of these islands are strong,” said William Vogel, the Federal Coordinating Officer of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). “They withstood two Category 5 hurricanes in two weeks. They’re working hard to get life back to normal. We are doing all we can to help the territory recover and become better able to face future storms.”

The mainland U.S. continues to suffer economic setbacks as well. Hurricane Irma made two landfalls as a Category 4 when it hit Florida, packing winds estimated at 130 mph. The storm came ashore in the Keys and near Marco Island. Six months later, Florida’s citrus season is the worst in 73 years because the storm destroyed this year’s crop. Tens of thousands of homes remain damaged as a direct result of the storm.