Two Bermudians living in the Bahamas have spoken of how they dodged the worst of Hurricane Irene.The storm washed away homes in the island chain on Thursday and has placed much of the American eastern seaboard on high alert.However, Bermudians Craig Lines and Guilden Gilbert managed to get away with nothing more than damage to their gardens and roof tiles.Mr Lines, 43, runs the operations of the LOM offshore financial services firm in Nassau and has lived in the Bahamas for almost ten years.“It was not too bad in Nassau,” he said last night. “There was storm damage to trees and a lot of the houses have some roof tiles missing.“Everyone just hunkered down during the storm and there was a rush on at the supermarkets beforehand for batteries and food, similar to what happens in Bermuda”.Although the trees and tiles were damaged at his home in the Sandyport gated community in the western district of New Providence, he is grateful the area was not flooded.“If there had been a storm surge, my house would be three or four feet under water. That was a major concern,” said Mr Lines, who is originally from Pembroke, Bermuda and lives with his wife and two young sons.Although he lost power for around 14 hours, it was back on by Thursday night and his office was back up and running by midmorning yesterday.Mr Gilbert, 45, lives on the eastern side of Nassau with his wife and two children. He grew up in St David’s but moved to the Bahamas in 1997.“We didn’t get a direct hit although at the height of the storm around 3am on Thursday we were getting gusts of up to 100 miles-per-hour,” he said.“I had no property damage but there were a couple of trees down. The electricity went out about midnight on Wednesday and came back on on Thursday around 5pm. We’re relieved it was not worse.”l Further stories on Hurricane Irene Pages 6 and 31l Useful websites: www.royalgazette.com/section/WEATHER, www.weather.bm, www.stormpulse.com.