A woman looks at heavy surf as Hurricane Irma approaches Puerto Rico in Luquillo | Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images French, Dutch send aid to Irma victims, but UK response criticized Hurricane Irma has been ‘hard and cruel,’ says Emmanuel Macron.

With Hurricane Irma leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, European countries have been assessing the damage to their territories in the Caribbean.

While France and the Netherlands said they had sent aid to islands such as Saint Martin, which is said to be “95 percent destroyed,” the U.K. was criticized for its lack of response.

Ten people are reported dead since the hurricane struck, with Barbuda, Saint Martin and Puerto Rico the worst hit, the Guardian reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Irma’s impact will be “hard and cruel” in a crisis meeting Wednesday. France sent emergency food and water to its overseas territories and Macron plans to visit “as soon as possible.”

The Netherlands will send planes with military support, food and water, Interior Minister Ronald Plasterk told reporters after a crisis meeting of the Cabinet Thursday morning.

Getting aid to the islands, particularly Saint Martin, may prove difficult. The island's port and airport have been all-but destroyed, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

Saint Martin is one island split in two, with a French northern part and the Dutch owning the south.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said late Wednesday that the U.K was in communication with its Caribbean territories, had a relief ship on standby and was doing “everything we can to help those afflicted."

Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with Macron Thursday and "agreed to cooperate closely, including with the Dutch, to understand the extent of the damage and to coordinate the relief effort," according to the Telegraph. May's spokesman told the Guardian that "humanitarian advisers had already deployed to the region to carry out damage assessments and provide humanitarian support.”

Ben Webster, head of the British Red Cross, said its relief teams were also on standby.

“British Red Cross has emergency aid ready to go from the regional warehouse, and our aid workers are on standby to support the response as needed, as part of the wider Red Cross movement operation,” Webster said.

But there was criticism of the British response.

“Britain should be doing more to assist those affected by the utter devastation in the Caribbean,” Green MP Caroline Lucas said in a statement Thursday.

"As part of such efforts, and if desired by the governments in the region, we should be using our armed forces to help with reconstruction and emergency assistance in the British Overseas Territories that have been hit. The U.K. has a highly skilled military that could be having a real impact here — and the truth is that they should already be helping out as the French are.”

Josephine Gumbs-Conner, a lawyer from Anguilla, a British territory, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that “in Saint Martin, the French made sure that they had military on the ground, so that the response given is timely, effective and helpful. That was sorely lacking in our [Britain's] case."

"While we understand that these things take time, I personally am very disappointed. We are supposed to be the same status as Gibraltar or the Falkland Islands.”