However, upon waking after a long night in the bathroom hiding from the worst of the storm, we saw how much our little world had changed.

We checked on our neighbours below to see how they fared. Luckily, they were little worse for wear than we were, however their balcony fan did take a beating.

Our other neighbour was also fine, however her spectacular view over the Caribbean was even more exposed, and perhaps more spectacular.

Once we ascertained that everyone in our compound was okay, we ventured out to discover fallen power lines…

… holes and washouts in the road…

… and the bridge near our flat collapsed.

Past the bridge, the road north toward the campus, 20 KMs away, was covered in debris…

… and the little village of Coulibistre was almost washed away.

We spent several days in our villa waiting for news and devising an escape plan. However, before we had a chance to implement our plan, the university sent a rescue team by fishing boat to get us from our village and bring us up to the campus.

Once we started up the coast, we then realized the full extent of the damage…

Many of the villages were devastated. Debris was blown up the mountains leaving a trail behind the villages.

Other infrastructure was damaged beyond repair.

Dominica does not have any enclosed harbours so most boats were actually moved to neighbouring islands. This one was not.

Once we arrived at the campus, we were able to talk to others to get their stories of what happened to them during the storm. We discovered that…

… and that evacuation efforts were well under way.

The US were airlifting people and conducting various emergency efforts. They also took those students who were willing to pay to get off right away.

However, most of us were evacuated by an old cruise ship. It could only take about 350 people at a time and we were on the second trip. After several days of sleeping in my office, we finally were tendered out to the ship…

From here, it was an overnight trip to St. Lucia where we were finally flown out to Miami. We arrived in Miami on September 28th, 10 days after the hurricane.

Below are a few more photos from Dominica.