A Dundee musician has told of his shock and relief after narrowly avoiding being caught up in Hurricane Beryl, which flattened his home island of Carriacou.
Howard McLeod and his two daughters Jody and Skye travelled to the Caribbean last week, landing on parent island Grenada, to be told a hurricane was on the way.
After being told their guest house had been evacuated, they found accommodation with the help of relatives before the massive storm struck shortly afterwards, with the epicentre hitting neighbouring island of Carriacou, which the trio were due to travel to.
The storm caused utter devastation, with around 90% of the island’s buildings destroyed or damaged, although thankfully there was no loss of life on Carriacou.
The family’s relatives were caught up in it but emerged unscathed, despite the roof of their building being ripped off.
‘Roof came off’
Jody posted a message on Facebook telling her family and friends at home that they were safe, but showing a video illustrating the utter devastation they had narrowly avoided.
Skye said: “Our family are all safe, the family that travelled from America to meet us were staying in one of the guest houses that was ruined.
“They were all right but the roof came off, they were on the second floor, they weren’t on the top floor.”
Howard added: “The family house is still standing but half the roof came off.”
Skye said: “They’ve got a wee shop with apartments above, the rooms we were meant to be staying in, the roof’s completely off that.
“The houses that had their own water supply are still OK but in general on the island there’s no water or power.”
Howard, Jody and Skye travelled back to the UK on Saturday and were due back in Dundee last night.
Jody said: “We and our family are safe but this has not been the case for some following the severe damage to the islands.”
‘Traumatising’
Skye added: “I can’t believe the absolute devastation, apparently 90% of the island is ruined. It’s awful.
“The guest house were meant to be staying in had the roof blown off so we were lucky the hurricane didn’t arrive a couple of days later when we were there.
“It was traumatising for us because we couldn’t contact anybody, we were sitting in our accommodation for a couple of days.
“Thankfully where we are, only a couple of palm trees are down, but this area in particular hasn’t been badly hit.
“In general we’ve been really lucky.”
Howard is now thinking of gathering his musician friends in Dundee with the aim of organising a fundraising concert for the people of Carriacou sometime soon.
“The clear-up alone is going to cost tens of millions of pounds and they’re going to have to rebuild it from the bottom up,” he said.
In addition, Howard intends donating some of the proceeds from his forthcoming new album, which is due for release in the next few months.
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