After being savaged by Hurricane Ike - which pounded the tiny country with winds in excess of 150 miles per hour, and left every single home and business on Grand Turk damaged - residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands are just glad to be alive.

Many of the seven thousand residents of Grand Turk recounted how they clung to anything and anyone as Ike battered and pummeled the island - ripping off roofs, tossing vehicles and trailers around, and bashing in the walls of many homes.