Hurricane Irma kills four in U.S. Virgin islands: government

[September 08, 2017]    (Reuters) - Hurricane Irma killed four people in the U.S. Virgin Islands and caused widespread damage to infrastructure, including to a major hospital, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Hurricane Irma, a record Category 5 storm, churns across the Atlantic Ocean on a collision course with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, is shown in this NASA GOES satellite image taken at 1715 EDT (2215 GMT) on September 5, 2017. NASA/Handout via REUTERS

"We are not sanguine that there aren't more (dead)," spokesman Lonnie Soury said by telephone from New York. He said that Governor Kenneth Mapp had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump who pledged strong federal government support in responding to the crisis.

(Reporting by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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