U.S. Virgin Islands' economy "evaporated overnight"

Hurricane Irma, at one point the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic, wreaked havoc in parts of the Caribbean — Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and St. Martin, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and parts of Cuba — leaving more than three dozen people dead and turning vacation island paradises into devastated landscapes.

Quote of the Day, from NYT: Clinton Gaskins, owner of Longboard, a restaurant on St. John, in the United States Virgin Islands, where the only customers these days are the locals who stop by to pick up Red Cross-provided meals: "The economy evaporated pretty much overnight."

Go deeper: "In the Virgin Islands, Hurricane Maria Drowned What Irma Didn't Destroy: As islanders wait for doctors, medicine, fuel and manpower to rebuild, the economic toll from the storms is only starting to come to light," by Jeremy Peters in Cruz Bay, V.I.