good news is strangled at birth.

As some Island hotels and resorts suffered beach damage and problems with debris whipped up by Hurricane Gert, the Pompano Beach Club got off almost scot-free -- which did not go down well with one network TV reporter.

The CBS journalist called Pompano's Larry Lamb , who informed her that the resort had escaped the worst of the heavy seas and high winds.

Guests were relaxing inside and on the terrace, and generally things looked fine. All of which did not go down well with the CBS woman, who demanded to know where the damage was and who was worst hit.

When Mr. Lamb continued to tell the real story, she completely lost interest and slammed the phone down! *** With Police advising people to remain indoors during the bad weather, it was perhaps not surprising to find that most of Hamilton's shops, businesses and restaurants were ready to write yesterday off as an impromptu holiday.

Front Street resembled a ghost town with all the city centre's shop doors firmly shut and window displays boarded up.

All, that is except one. Staff at Monty's Restaurant on Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke, braved the elements, got to work on time -- and managed to do a roaring trade.

General manager Emma Simmons said: "Well we didn't have any electricity at home so we thought we might as well come in and provide a service for the community. We were also certain that we would be the only place open.'' Although the streets might have looked deserted a brilliant marketing strategy -- a quick plug on the local radio station -- brought customers flooding in.

By lunchtime it was standing room only as hurricane watchers sought sanctuary from the biting winds.

"We were just totally inundated,'' Mrs. Simmons said.

"We got a little overwhelmed. I don't think people could believe we were open. But we had some lovely customers and they were all thanking us.

But with customers still queuing, the restaurant was eventually forced to close up shop for the afternoon around 2 p.m. -- but only after it had completely run out of vital supplies such as bread.

"We had a weekend level of business -- it was like a Sunday, which is always our busiest day, but we just weren't prepared for it,'' Mrs. Simmons said.

The restaurant re-opened for evening diners last night.

*** Quick and agile, a lone young man embraced the angry ten-foot South Shore waves yesterday afternoon.

Raging waves of murky water beat against cliffs and rocks and sucked away all the popular South Shore beaches in Paget, Warwick, and Southampton. Yet almost anywhere a bit of sand was left there came reports of swimmers and surfers.

Despite apparent sightings of swimmers at Horseshoe Bay , none of the Royal Gazette teams out in the field yesterday came across even one.

The scenario was different at Elbow Beach where we had to beg security guards to let us down to take pictures.

On the beach we saw a young man who was brazen but not completely daring. He, on what is normally the sand covered part of the beach, rode a round wooden board. From what we saw he didn't venture out into the waves but simply moved across the water-covered beach.

*** A Royal Gazette reporter was given the chance to fill the illustrious shoes -- or rather boots -- of Dr. David Saul yesterday.

When the former Premier noticed Stephen Breen was about to get wet feet while covering Hurricane Gert because he had ventured into the storm wearing a pair of shoes, the helpful politician disappeared into his house in Devonshire Bay, and gave him his old Wellington boots. The grateful journalist was happy to report his feet remained dry for the rest of the day.