Honeymooners tell of hurricane horror

Tim Brodie-James and his wife Ruth, who has kept her maiden name of Carpenter, cowered in a bathroom as the hotel they'd been evacuated to was almost destroyed by heavy winds.

Ruth told the Echo: "We really thought we were going to die."

Now the couple are safely back at home in Blandford but still reeling emotionally from their ordeal and they're urging locals to support the Red Cross appeal to help people on the island recover from the devastation.

Ruth described how as the winds picked up they shut themselves in their room, closed the curtains and fled to the bathroom as the eye of the storm was above them.

"The windows blew in and shattered, furniture was thrown around the room and the sound of the roaring wind was like being underneath the jet engines of an aeroplane.

"We were petrified," she added.

The couple, who both work for English Nature, fled to a neighbouring room where the winds lifted the roof clean off.

Ruth said: "We were underneath the sink unit with cushions over our heads and felt the pressure in our ears as the roof came off. Electric cables were hanging down around us."

They fled to a concrete storage cupboard where they stayed until the storm had passed.

Ruth, 43, said: "Outside was total devastation - houses had been flattened, trees broken in half and there were no communications at all.

"The island's two main economic mainstays are tourism, which will be terribly badly hit, and agriculture and everything has gone. It's not just short-term relief they'll need but long term aid."

They spent their remaining days on the island helping clear the debris and collect drinking water and returned home to Ruth's children on Saturday.

And the newlyweds' relationship weathered the storm: "It was a bit of a test but we looked after each other," said Ruth.

To donate to the Red Cross appeal call 0870 169 9191 or visit www.redcross.org.uk/caribbeanappeal.

First published: Sept 14