DOWNING Street has defended its response to Hurricane Irma, insisting it has been "swift," after fierce criticism that the UK Government has not done enough to prepare for the disaster.

Theresa May is due this afternoon to hold another meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee to co-ordinate relief efforts for victims of the hurricane, which is the most powerful to ever hit the Atlantic and is due to hit Cuba later today and Florida tomorrow.

Irma, which has been downgraded to category four but is still described as "extremely dangerous", has killed at least 14 people.

The British Virgin Islands, which saw houses reduced to their foundations and many roads impassable following the "devastating" storm, has declared a state of emergency.

Images posted on social media showed entire structures razed to the ground, with debris scattered across the streets.

Two British women thought to be missing on Barbuda following the hurricane have been spotted helping with the relief efforts, a relative told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said aircraft carrying around 100 personnel, made up of engineers, marines and medical specialists, will take rations and medical supplies to the area.

The Prime Minister's spokeswoman dismissed criticism that the UK lagged behind France and the Netherlands in taking care of its territories in the path of the hurricane.

"We believe our response was swift. We had a ship pre-positioned. We are getting lifesaving aid now to those who need it," she declared.

The spokeswoman, who said the Government was waiting for "a full picture of intelligence to come through", added: "Three flights departed this morning carrying marines and engineers as part of the MoD task force.

"Tomorrow, another C17 will leave carrying two Puma helicopters. And the RFA Mounts Bay ship is due to arrive in the British Virgin Islands...bringing aid and helicopters to help deliver supplies."

Downing Street said that the Department for International Development's disaster response centre was sending out supplies of aid to be loaded on to HMS Ocean, which has been diverted from the Mediterranean to head for the Caribbean to help with the disaster relief efforts.

The aid heading for HMS Ocean includes 10,000 buckets and 5,000 solar lanterns, the spokeswoman said.

Priti Patel, the International Development Secretary, also defended the Government’s response, which includes £32 million towards the relief effort, noting how Britain had a naval and military presence in the area.

"I do think it's not right to basically say that we've been caught out," she declared.

She told Sky News: "We've had the vessel out there and that vessel has been equipped with the right people and the right skills and the right equipment and the reality is, of course, it's been a difficult environment to get into because of the scale of the hurricane and the extent to which the devastation has hit the countries as well.

"We are helping on the ground now and in terms of preparedness, we have the right people on the ground, in country and this is about making sure that we channel our resources."

Ms Patel said officials were monitoring the path of the next two hurricanes expected in the region and were trying to get supplies in to areas likely to be affected "right now, sooner rather than later".

But Labour’s Virendra Sharma said the storm had not been adequately prepared for, despite indications that it would wreak devastation, and described the UK response as showing "a lack of vision".

Mr Sharma, who sits on the Commons International Development Committee, welcomed the decision to send further resources but said: "If we had that planned well in advance, then when it actually happened we could have immediately taken steps, like France."

Asked why he thought the response had been slow, he replied: "It is a lack of vision."

The UK has already sent one ship to Anguilla while another - HMS Ocean - is currently heading to the region.

However, Dorothea Hodge, the former British representative to the island, said the Government's response so far had been "absolutely disgraceful".

She contrasted Mrs May’s response to that of French President Emmanuel Macron.

“In comparison to the French President, who has set up an emergency fund, an emergency hotline and a reconstruction fund, her response after the storm has passed is absolutely pathetic," she added.

Meanwhile in a tweet to Thomas Cook, British tourist Gaz Pritchard said: "The Canadians are being evacuated from our hotel in Cuba. British guests are left stranded with no information. Disgusting."

Thomas Cook said it was often safer for customers to stay where they were in the event of a hurricane.

Carol MacKenzie, head of customer welfare, said in a blog: "Many customers think they will be evacuated as soon as possible but more often than not the safest place to stay is in the hotel itself, which is built to withstand severe hurricane-strength winds and rain.

"A long transfer across a Caribbean island in the hope that aircraft are still able to take off and land poses much more of a risk than staying in a hurricane-proof hotel," she explained.

Another tourist, Joe, who is staying at a resort in Varadero in Cuba, said his flight had been moved from Friday to Saturday with little explanation.

He wrote: "A lot of British people left not knowing what is going on by Thomas Cook in Varadero."

The hurricane's ruinous touch, which has already reduced the island of Barbuda to wreckage, will also be felt in nearby Haiti as the storm sweeps north-west.

Irma was first classified as a tropical storm on August 30 and rapidly intensified over the following days, becoming a category four hurricane on September 4.

Then winds reached a peak of 130mph but soon became the strongest for more than a decade when sustained winds peaked at 185mph.

Saint Martin, which has already fallen victim to Irma, is also facing a new threat in the form of Jose, while the British territories of Anguilla and Montserrat are on alert for a tropical storm.

Thousands of British tourists believed to be in the Caribbean have been warned to follow evacuation orders while some have been advised to stay in their hotel rooms.

Holiday firms said they are monitoring the situation and some have cancelled flights or offered to amend bookings for those due to travel to affected areas in the coming days.

States of emergency have been declared in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Florida, where the storm is due to make landfall this weekend.