AN Islander who narrowly escaped with his life when Hurricane Ivan devastated the Caymans in 2004 has had to batten down the hatches again.

Simon Dodkins boarded up his house in anticipation of Hurricane Gustav hitting the Caribbean Island on Friday. He sent messages to friends and family via Facebook saying that he was prepared for the worst.

‘Simon is stuck inside with Hurricane Gustav raging outside. Getting cabin fever,’ he wrote on Friday. Later the same day, and with a huge sigh of relief as the main force of the storm passed by, leaving the island largely unscathed, Mr Dodkins noted: ‘Gustav tore the place up, but we survived.’

In an e-mail written on Saturday, he summed up the previous 24 hours. ‘We began experiencing strong winds from late yesterday onwards, and throughout the night we experienced violent, howling wind up to about 5 am when the hurricane started to move away from us,’ he said. ‘Hurricane Gustav came into our area as a tropical storm, with winds of 39 to 73 mph, and underwent substantial strengthening as it passed over, leaving the area as a major Category Three Hurricane (winds 111 to 130 mph).’