“Pleasantly surprised” is not a term you would expect to hear from a reverend whose church roof just sustained a hole courtesy of Hurricane Nicole. But in the Reverend Ruth Smith’s mind, “it could have been much worse”.

The Bethel Church on North Shore Road in Hamilton sustained much worse damage in the last pair of hurricanes to pay the island a visit — Fay and Gonzalo in 2014 — which caused extensive damage to the roof at the front end of the church.

And while Nicole punched in a fresh hole, this one in the back end of the roof, the damage was on a much smaller scale.

The North Shore received much of the brunt of the storm with damage also being sustained at Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club.

Mrs Smith, pointing to the ceiling inside where what looks like a piece of slate was sticking through, told The Royal Gazette: “This is the old original sanctuary that is — all old roof up there. I was at home and someone called and said the church has received some damage and that was a call I didn’t want to hear.

“Because we are right on the North Shore there is no protection. But I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn’t more damage on the inside.

“We were very worried because we knew what happened before and Bethel has been hit several times before that, so it was just a prayer to the Lord to keep us safe this time. It was a major project last time we had to close off the balcony for services but this time we can still have services at 8 o’clock and 11 o’clock on Sunday.”

Workers were on site assessing the damage and were preparing to clear any rubble from the roof so nothing could fall through during service. They will then check to see whether the roof frame is still intact and then they will re-slate and add a new paint job.

In the meantime the Royal Bermuda Regiment is to place tarpaulin on the roof so no rain can come through.

Mrs Smith added: “As they say location, location, location — we may not be in the best location during hurricanes but you just roll up your sleeves, do the work and continue back to the ministry that God has put us here to do.

“We are hoping to be back up to speed on Tuesday and Wednesday to start work on it. During Fay and Gonzalo it took a month to complete the work. This time it may take only two weeks if they have the materials available.

“The PLP [Progressive Labour Party] was scheduled to have an event in the lower hall but they chose to cancel. We could have hosted it.

“Everything is as normal and we are thankful for that. When I came in I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as Fay and Gonzalo.”

Bailey’s Bay Cricket Club sustained damage to the roof and a smashed window which let in floods of rain.

President of the club Arrim Perinchief was with some club members yesterday, clearing away the mess. “We pushed most of it out but it is still real damp,” he said. “We are still assessing everything. During the second half of the storm the wind was coming straight in. We will have to replace all ceiling tiles in the bar — they all got water damage. We lost the porch roof on Jamaican Grill and the [small] roof on the players’ pavilion.

“We had some guys from the cricket team and a few members from the club who helped clean up the water. We are here waiting for the tarp to turn up so no more rain can get in.

“Whenever we have a storm, once everybody takes care of their family, they come down and check out the place. Once we get it covered we can start getting our estimates for the window, roof and gate. It’s insured. It could have been a lot worse. We had to cancel some rentals.

“It will take us a few weeks until we can get back to normal but we are planning to still have the Bermuda v Canada cricket match next Sunday.”