Water, water, everywhere — May 2008 will surely be remembered as the month when the heavens opened and deluged Bermuda in millions of gallons of water.

Weather stories dominated the front page, with a powerful rain storm on May 6 causing motorcycles to float around the streets of Hamilton and forcing customers at Ten wine bar on Dundonald Street to barricade themselves into the building with towels.

Windreach Recreational Village, meanwhile, survived a lightning bolt which left it incommunicado after knocking out its telephone, security and pumping system.

But the most dramatic story from the storm involved Trinidadian teacher Natalie Leith who swam to safety across her bedroom in the middle of the night and escaped through a small window after water gushed into her basement apartment.

Ms Leith was left with just the clothes she was wearing after the horrendous storm gutted her home in Border Lane East, Pembroke.

She told The Royal Gazette she was awoken by a "distinct thunderous noise that sounded like thunder but not quite". "A few minutes after, the water came gushing through the door and pushed me off of the bed with a thunderous rage," she said.

The Whitney Middle School mathematics teacher explained that the water, which rose to about eight feet inside the flat, seemed to have come through cracks in the bedroom doorway as she slept.

"I believe the water originally entered through my front door," she said. "At that point I was desperate to get out and I kept trying to turn the bedroom doorknob but it was jammed.

"I think my escape was through divine intervention. I felt as if something just guided me to climb on top of a treadmill I had in the room and I don't even know how I got through that little window.

"Before I escaped I noticed the water to be near my neck. I realised as a saying goes in Trinidad 'it's water more than flour' — everything was just floating around my bedroom as if I was inside of a huge bucket."

Colleagues of Ms Leith, who moved in with friends after the flood, launched a collection to help her and an e-mail was circulated around the Island seeking assistance.

Fellow Whitney teacher Sharon Williams said: "The response was overwhelming. It was one of those situations where people don't stop to think and just react because a colleague was in need. It was miraculous that she survived."

Bermuda Weather Service blamed the rainfall on a series of thunderstorms. Metrologist Nick Camizzi said: "I've been here for a year and it was the most amount of rain I've seen in a day.

"It was the most rainfall in a day, since May 14, 2007, which, like Tuesday night, saw 2.63 inches of rainfall. The most rainfall recorded in a 24-hour period was 4.1 inches in May 1997."

Less than a week later the heavens were at it again; bucketing rainfall filled water tanks on May 12 but left vehicles stalled in deep floods.

Works and Engineering Minister Derrick Burgess told the House of Assembly that some nine million gallons of water fell on the Island in just seven hours during the devastating May 6 downpour. He pledged that the Highways section would step up maintenance of storm drains to lessen the impact of flash floods in the future.

Violent crime jumps

Violent crime soared to its highest point for at least eight years during May following a surge in gang robberies. Figures released by Police showed 105 violent crimes took place in the first three months of 2008, up from 72 for the same period last year and more than at any time since modern Police records begin in 2001.