A TEACHER from Bury is fleeing Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean – to avoid a second category five hurricane.

Katy Shimmin, aged 26, booked a flight to Virginia in the USA to escape the islands before Hurricane Maria reaches them, just two weeks after Hurricane Irma tore through the area.

Miss Shimmin’s flight left yesterday and was one of the last to leave the island before the storm, which is likely to hit tomorrow.

Miss Shimmin, who grew up in Bury and whose family live in Grosvenor Street, said: “Now the hurricane has been upgraded to five people are boarding up their houses before they’ve even had chance to take some of the boards off.

“Some people have been left without roofs, some without houses. There are people in the bush with newborn babies, who are desperate for baby food and water.”

Where Irma brought ferocious wind, Miss Shimmin explained Maria is expected to bring a lot more rain.

She said: “Irma didn’t bring that much rain and it was mostly wind, which was obviously devastating for the land, but now people don’t have roofs and the island is at sea level.

“People will be worried their already broken homes will now be flooded. It’s just so sad.

“There’s a shortage of wood so people aren’t boarding up their roofs and the people who would normally come and fix the roofs have had their houses ruined so they can’t go out and help others.

“It’s a very ‘all hands on deck’ situation.”

Miss Shimmin flew over to Turks and Caicos at the end of August to work at The International School of the Turks & Caicos Islands on the Providenciales island.

The school put her and other teachers up in a hotel for the duration of Hurricane Irma, which she said was like living through the film Dunkirk.

Miss Shimmin taught her first class on Monday, only half the class attended.

She said: “Most have been boarding up their houses ready for the next hurricane or fleeing the island.”

Miss Shimmin described the heartwarming efforts of people helping each other.

She said: “People from the school have been running down to the bush with pre packaged food for people. It’s been so lovely to see people pulling together.”

The islands have been covered in debris from Hurricane Irma and Miss Shimmin said she had had four flat tyres in one week as a result.

She said: “Everybody is just getting flat tyre after flat tyre, there’s one place open to fix them but even they are having to make the tyres now.”

Miss Shimmin is determined to help the islands return to their former glory though.

She said: “It’s not a situation I thought I would ever be in that’s for sure.

“I’m going to stick it out though. After everything I’ve seen I want to be part of pulling the island together again. The island is so beautiful and the people are lovely.

“I’ve just arrived at a really really unlucky time I suppose. It’s not everyday you get two category five hurricanes heading your way is it?

“We haven’t had power or water for over a week but in comparison to some people on the island I am just so incredibly lucky to have a roof over my head.”