When Kiernan Bell was attempting to retrieve Bullet the cat from her mother's empty house last Friday night, she felt something float along and bang into her knee.

It was 'Secrets' a pastel by one of the Island's finest artists Sharon Wilson, something very dear to Kathleen Bell, who was away in Dublin with husband Geoffrey.

The work had survived the ravishes of the storm, even though the house it was hung in had not.

Scuppers, their beautiful Hungry Bay cottage so resplendent that it is to appear in the March addition of the Bermuda Calendar 2004, has been reduced to a shell by a boulder thrown through storm shutters by Hurricane Fabian.

The Bells will return to a property which was waist-deep in fish and crab infested water at the height of the storm's power.

Daughter Kiernan Bell, who lives behind the sea-front cottage, and house-sitter and family friend for 20 years Stephen Males helped secure the property as best they could the night before Fabian struck, but there was little that could be done to save the idyllic waterfront home.

"It was a pretty horrendous night," said a tearful Ms Bell.

"It was so sad to see such a beautiful property destroyed like this. But, in the end, you have to remember that it is only stuff, not people.

"The phone in our house stayed on and I rung Mum and told her what was happening. She took the destruction of her house pretty well, she was just pleased none of us were hurt."

By morning, the front of the house had been wrenched away, exposing a still partially-intact kitchen to the elements. Most of the house was covered in a brown, muddy film with the boulder still resting in the dishwasher.

The sea-front patio was all but gone with the house unlikely to ever to return to its former glory.

Ms Bell, along with her parents' house-sitter Mr. Males, kept a storm journal throughout Fabian, including excerpts such as: "4.36pm, wind really bad. Hard to overstate it, really".

The crashing and banging of Fabian worried them, but when they heard the largest of the bangs they decided to commence 'Operation Bullet'.

The cat was somewhere in the sea-front house, but then again so was a lot of water and general storm detritus.

The boulder had demolished a storm shutter which meant the hurricane was now blowing outwards, something the door and windows - and front wall - couldn't handle.

"We were just wading through the house, waist-deep in water with fish and crabs and all sorts of things floating round," said Mr. Males.

"The house was just a wreck and it was pretty scary in the air.

"We managed to get into the main bedroom and then the bathroom where we found a drenched Bullet and took her home."

Ms Bell described it as "like the scene from Jaws when the boat is sinking".

Helpful friends spent the next two days coming to assist with the clean up operation ahead of the return to her home of Kathleen Bell, who arrived on the first flight back to the Island on Monday.