Islanders Take Shelter at Hotel Dante

Any shelter in the storm -- even if it has a gay past.

As a series of hurricanes continues to wreak havoc in the Caribbean, residents of the Turks and Caicos Islands, nearly destroyed Sunday by the category 4, 135-mph Hurricane Ike, are receiving some relief. Locals have been invited to take shelter at the Turks Head Mansion on Grand Turk Island, the setting for Hotel Dante in season 1 of the here! Networks series Dante's Cove. The luxury accommodations were among the few of the island's structures not demolished by the hurricane.

According to the Associated Press, nearly every structure on the small islands of Turks and Caicos suffered some damage from the hurricane. According to eye witness accounts, homes were missing roofs, boats sunk and the bulk of the islands residents left looking for shelter.

Turks and Caicos premier Michael Misick said people who didn't ride out the storm in shelters cowered in closets and under stairwells "just holding on for life. They got hit really, really bad," Misick said, according to AP. "A lot of people have lost their house, and we will have to see what we can do to accommodate them."

Early reports suggested it was too soon to know of a death toll.

"I've been living in the Caribbean for 25 years and I've never seen this kind of destruction," Giora Israel, senior vice president of strategic planning forCarnival Corp., told the Associated Press.

Tourism is the primary source of income for Grand Turk. With a population of just under 4,000 people, many of the island's residents work for the government, but the cruise ship industry is the largest private sector employer.

For more information on relief efforts in Turks and Caicos, visit the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency at www.CDERA.org or make a donation to relief efforts through the International Red Cross at www.IFRC.org. For more information on the Turks Head Mansion, visit www.TurksHeadMansion.com.(The Advocate)