Pastor Jonathan Falwell, brother of Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, has asked for prayers after being left stranded on the island of St Martin in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
Falwell, the son of famed televangelist Jerry Falwell and pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Virginia, had taken his wife for a wedding anniversary trip to the Caribbean island when the category 4 hurricane hit.
On Twitter, the pastor shared a series of photos revealing the devastation surrounding him and urged his 39,000 followers to pray: "We are safe. No power, no water, everything destroyed. Buildings gone. Please pray as this island is decimated," he tweeted.
"All services down. Cell working only intermittently. There is no doubt there is massive loss of life here. Still much prayer needed," he wrote. "Another photo from this morning. It's so tragic. Situation is catastrophic."
"Saint Martin needs your prayers. This was shelter we were in until 5am when roof blew off. We were moved minutes before," he captioned another.
Falwell revealed that he and his wife are currently residing in a makeshift shelter along with hundreds of others until they are able to return home.
Hurricane Irma barreled through the Caribbean on its way toward the U.S. with 175 mile-per-hour sustained winds, killing at least 18 and displacing millions. The hurricane has destroyed much of Puerto Rico, Barbuda, and St. Martin.
As of Friday morning, Irma had weakened from a Category 5 to a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph.
The storm as of that time was moving toward the U.S. mainland at 16 mph, was located 450 miles southeast of Miami, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for the Florida Keys and parts of South Florida and said Irma is expected to remain at least a Category 4 hurricane until landfall in the state this weekend. Mandatory evacuations have been issued for many counties in South Florida.
"If you're in an evacuation zone, you've got to get out; you can't wait," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said in a Friday interview today with ABC News' "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts.
"This thing's coming," he warned. "It looks like it's going to go right through the middle of our state."
"It's a massive storm; it can be devastating," Scott said of Irma. "I'm a father, I'm a grandfather, I love my family," the governor added. "I hope every parent in this state and grandparent is thinking, 'How do I protect my family?'"
Delta confirmed on Thursday that the St Thomas and St Martin airports were closed for damage, and that it had canceled its flights for Thursday and Friday, AJC.com reported.
