FORMER Daily Echo employee Nicky James is preparing to sit out the worst hurricane to hit the Caribbean in 16 years in an underground room in Jamaica.

Nicky, who was assistant news editor at our Richmond Hill offices until she moved out to Jamaica in early May, has spent the last three days preparing for the 155-mph winds of Hurricane Ivan.

She and her fiance Martin Williams, who is a pilot on the island, packed up important documents and precious belongings from their home in Montego Bay on the north-west coast and are staying with Martin's mum further inland.

"We are boarding up the windows with plywood. The most secure room is under the house. There will be six adults and six dogs in there," she told the Echo yesterday evening.

"The supermarkets have been packed. We stocked up three days ago - tinned food, candles, batteries, matches and drinking water."

As we spoke to Nicky, the storm, which has killed some 23 people in the Caribbean, was 150 miles off Kingston where it was forecast to make a direct hit at around midnight local time, 6am this morning UK time.

"Hurricane Gilbert came 16 years ago almost to the day on September 12 1988," she added.

"It was only a category three when it passed Jamaica but it tore the heart out of it and people haven't forgotten that."

This hurricane, dubbed Ivan the Terrible, is a category four.

Some 300 miles wide, it left a trail of flattened houses, tearing buildings apart across Grenada earlier this week.

Half a million Jamaicans have evacuated their homes; emergency shelters opened last night.

Shops and airports are closed.

"I have never been in anything like this," added Nicky.

"The build up to it and the preparation has been colossal. Now we will just sit tight."

First published: September 11