Five years ago the Island woke to winds gusting between 25 mph and 37 mph as Hurricane Fabian had it sights set on Bermuda.

By 5.55 p.m. when the strongest winds of 150 mph were recorded, the Island had already lost four lives on the Causeway.

P.C. Stephen Symons, 37, P.C. Nicole O'Connor, 29, Station Duty Officer, Gladys Saunders, 48, were trapped on the bridge in one car and a civilian, Manuel Pacheco was stuck in a second care behind them at about 2.30 p.m.

Alhough attempts were made to save them, fire fighters, police officers and a constructions worker had to abort the mission when the storm became too bad.

The body of P.C. Symons was found two days later and the other victims were never seen again.

During the day of Fabian there were reported gusts closer to 160 mph, however, around 4.55 p.m. the Bermuda Weather Service's monitoring equipment had shorted as water surged eight feet above sea level and recording stopped for two hours.

The Weather Service crew were lucky to still have equipment to monitor after their meteorologist Brian Kolts told this paper at the time that five more knots would have blown the roof off their bombproof US military-made shelter.

Hurricane Fabian approached the Island from the south, south-west and moved north. When the four who lost their lives became trapped on the Causeway, winds had already reached sustained winds of 74 mph.

The eye of the storm, which was 50 miles from north to south and 30 miles from east to west, then travelled across the Island bringing the highest winds.

The wall of the eye skirted to the West sitting on the Island for about three hours in the north-east quadrant — traditionally the strongest part of the storm.

At about 6.55 p.m., the eye was north of Bermuda and the winds switched direction to come from a westerly direction on the comparatively weaker side of the storm.

And by 11.55 p.m. on Friday, the hurricane winds had officially passed over the Island, with sustained speeds of 40 knots (46 mph) gusting to 52 knots (60 mph) hitting the Island.

From then on, there was a steady decline in wind speed as Fabian blew out into the Atlantic northwards, and by 4.55 a.m. on Saturday the Weather Centre was barely registering tropical storm conditions, with sustained winds at 36 knots (41 mph).

But what it left in it's wake was anything but calm. Estimated costs for damage from the storm ran in the area of $300 million.

Around 25,000 out of 32,000 homes and businesses were left without power, though by mid-afternoon on Sunday, BELCO reported that 11,000 homes had their power restored.

A 20-strong team from the Caribbean Electric Association, in Cayman, arrived on the Tuesday to offer help where they could.

The East End of the Island, however, was cut-off for days after the Causeway was unpassable. Days later it was open to one-way traffic, but still closed at night and finally in October the main artery of the Island was running as normal.

Now the Causeway is often closed whenever the wind gets close to 50 knots.

Commercial flights beginning with two of Delta's airlines from Atlanta and Boston started on the Monday with the rest starting on the Tuesday.

Bermuda's hotels suffered, with the majority of the Sonesta Beach Hotel's roof flying off and the Fairmont Southampton also struggled to replace its roof.

Fabian conveniently hit at the beginning of the school year and meant the opening of Government schools was delayed a week and they did not open until September 15.

St. George's prep spent months recovering after the storm which wreaked havoc on the building and two years after Hurricane Fabian ravaged the Island The Department of Parks and the Ministry of Works and Engineering started repairing the entrance to Church Bay, which was badly damaged.