Hollywood actor Robert de Niro has vowed to help Barbuda rebuild after Hurricane Irma left a trail of "absolute devastation" across the tiny Caribbean island.

Packing 185-mile-per-hour winds, the storm destroyed houses, snapping trees and killing at least one person

Gaston Browne, the prime minister of the two-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, described the island as "barely habitable" after the powerful Category 5 storm struck.

"This rebuilding initiative will take years," Browne told local ABS Television Radio after a visit to the island.

A two-year-old child was killed as a family tried to escape a damaged home during the storm, he said.