Intense — is one word to describe the work of the The Royal Gazette's Follow It Live team.

Others would be funny, stressful, interesting, steep learning curve, and we think, pretty successful.

Our real-time, blow-by-blow coverage, began at 3.39 p.m. on Saturday, September 18, when I told readers I was waiting for the Premier's press conference in the Fairmont Hamilton Gold Lounge before Hurricane Igor stuck. International press were in attendance as were all the local media. Within nine minutes we had our first non-Royal Gazette post from a woman in Scotland who wanted to be kept abreast of what was going on because her sister lives in Bermuda.

Nine people, many overseas, had posted even before the Premier stepped up to the podium.

He said: "Today we have been forced to recognise that the ocean is not so vast and Bermuda not so unique as to be separated from the awesome power of nature. Today we stand on the eve of the arrival of one of the worst hurricanes to ever threaten our shores."

Within two hours more than 75 posts were on Follow It Live, many from our local readers. By Sunday morning 3,000 readers had been on our Follow It Live site and as of press time last night almost 12,500 readers had been on, posting more than 2,200 comments, not to mention sending pictures and videos for our team to post.

Tim Smith and I were in based out of a room off of Fairmont Hamilton's Gold Lounge. At one point I dubbed it the the posh bunker room because it was a beautiful room but it felt like we could never leave,

Follow It Live kept readers here and abroad up to date on official information such as regular weather and Belco updates. We had Royal Gazette reporters and photographers giving status reports throughout the storm and at important times.

The Royal Gazette was on the scene when the Causeway closed at 10.15 a.m. on Sunday and when it opened at 3 p.m. Monday and so was able, through the site, to let everyone know immediately.

Throughout the days, reporters called in stories that we uploaded on the The Royal Gazette website as breaking news as well as posting them on Follow it Live. But often the most up-to-date information came from you, our readers.

Members of the public started updating us regularly from Boaz Island to St. David's letting the community know what was happening right around the Island.

Those on Follow It Live also posed questions and we did our best to answer them.

But it wasn't serious all the time at 7.15 p.m. on Saturday Jonny posted: "Anyone know if Queen is open? I'm getting hungry."

Within a minute he had the answer. "Hey Jonny, just checked for you," I posted. "Ice Queen is open until 9 p.m. tonight. Have a milkshake for me please."

We also kept readers up to date when The Royal Gazette "IT guy" Lucien Anderson got stuck in an elevator around 5 p.m. on Sunday (don't worry the Fairmont had him out in no time). At the time Tim and I were very deep in the Follow It Live site as well as our website updating stories as Igor loomed ever closer.

But as the storm drew nearer and our readership increased our Internet speed slowed down. Hence the urgent call to Lucien to come fix it and the frustration that set in when we thought he was stuck in the elevator for the night.

It was also perhaps egged on by the fact that we had been on Follow it Live or updating the web approximately 18 of the last 26 hours so lack of sleep was a factor.

Readers immediately inquired how he was, and we interviewed him over the phone while he was stuck. As soon as he was free he called us and we told the readers who responded with well wishes. One reader told Lucien he should learn from this and take the stairs during a hurricane.

As the night wore on and Igor drew closer power was going out across the Island and one by one contact with our fellow reporters and editors went down. So when a 'crisis' emerged — a broken Follow It Live link to allow new readers to join — we only had the few locals with power left and their friends and family overseas to turn to.

"Help," I posted. "Tim and I are only NCTJ qualified reporters, shorthand we can do. Fixing broken links, we cannot."

To my surprise a man called Douglas Campbell in Boston e-mailed right away with a temporary fix that would get us through the night. We continued on until 2 a.m. Monday telling people what Igor looked like, interviewing a British Airways First Officer who explained the weather pattern to us right after Igor's closest point.

We started again at 6.30 a.m. yesterday making sure we had a story online by 7 a.m. telling people the Island was safe and no one had been harmed by Igor. And as the power came back on across the Island so too did many local readers sending photos and information about what Igor had done in their neck of the woods.

To say exhaustion had set in by that time would be a serious understatement. Follow It Live had been online for more than 36 hours and we only spent approximately 12 hours away from it. But at that point why stop now? The Royal Gazette office was not yet operational as the computer system had to be taken down during the storm, but those with power on Island were sending up-to-date information.

And by 9 a.m. Royal Gazette reporters were phoning in updates from across the Island such as the damage reports from various hotels and properties. We finally left the bunker room at 12 p.m. yesterday and headed to Par-La-Ville to start work in the office where The Royal Gazette continued Follow It Live throughout the day and reporters gathered the stories you saw on our website yesterday and in today's edition.

The whole experience was somewhat surreal, but an amazing example of reader participation and community journalism. Igor seemed somehow less scary when Islanders could connect with one another throughout most of the three days. Someone would ask how St. George's had fared and another person in St. George's would explain what was going on. When people wanted to know if the Causeway was opened we could confidently say no as a reporter was at the scene. For me Follow It Live took some of the uncertainty out of the hurricane.

And it wasn't just those in Bermuda who felt the need for timely updates.

Michael wrote: "Ruth and Tim thank you for the coverage and I hope it lasts through the storm. I am a resident but currently on business in Singapore, however my family is in Bermuda, your coverage is priceless."

"It got hairy at times in our bunker, particularly as I was forced to type on the world's tiniest computer which was so prone to crashing at vital moments I felt like opening the window and feeding it to Igor," Tim said.

"But our job was made much easier because of all the help we were getting from readers across the Island. As they kept us up-to-date with what was going on, we were able to keep everyone else informed."

And Tim's right, it was with everyone's help across Bermuda that Follow It Live was a success. It was Live from 3.44 a.m. Saturday until 7.29 p.m yesterday.

Editor Bill Zuill had this to say: "We have had a great deal of success with Follow It Live since we introduced it earlier this year, primarily for covering sport events. We decided to use it for Igor because of its ability to rapidly update the public and to interact with the public at the same time.

"What was a surprise, but probably should not have been, was the extraordinary amount of information we got back from the public about what was happening around the Island during the storm.

"We are thrilled that thousands of people used the site during the storm and found it useful. I need to pay a special compliment to Tim Smith and Ruth O'Kelly Lynch for continuously updating the site from Saturday through yesterday. They did a magnificent job."