A POOLE woman who survived the full force of Hurricane Irma has returned to Dorset from her new home in the devastated British Virgin Islands (BVI).

Kay Smith told how she and two friends cowered in a laundry room as the hurricane ripped the roof off her apartment and destroyed all her possessions.

The 41-year-old is currently staying with her mother in Canford Cliffs and is now urging members of the public to support those who remain on the islands.

Kay was living in Tortola and working as an Offshore Yacht Master when the hurricane struck.

She told the Daily Echo: “We are used to being put on hurricane watch and we have had tropical storms but this is the first hurricane that has hit in my experience.

“We were very, very nervous. We were keeping an eye on it and knew it was big and it was going to hit us. Suddenly the internet went down and the atmosphere changed.

“A tree outside my home just disappeared and the winds doubled in three to four minutes. We heard the roof go and the furniture was being thrown around so we barricaded ourselves in the laundry room.”

Kay took shelter with friends Murray Faber and Oli Wickham, along with their terrified pet cat.

Now Kay, who plans to return to the stricken island of Tortola as soon as possible, is asking people to support relief efforts.

She said: “It is not a rich country. The people that live and work there are ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs, hotel staff, bar staff, construction workers etc, many of whom were incredibly poor before this even happened.

“This storm was unprecedented, it was the largest storm to have ever formed in the Atlantic prior to landfall - everyone was as prepared as they could be, no one could have prepared for 225 mile an hour winds. The fact that the death toll stands at five people in a country of 28,000 is nothing short of miraculous.

“The whole island was devastated in this storm, leaving thousands of people, a lot of them children, without safe homes, roofs, water, electric and food.

“Mosquitos are thriving in the conditions and mosquito-borne diseases such as Denge and Zika are a huge concern.”

The island is threatened again this week by Hurricane Maria. The relief fund can be found at virgin.com/unite/bvi-community-support-appeal