St. John's men took shelter inside hotel in Dominica as Hurricane Maria tore roof off

For Bassem Eid and Craig Coffin of St. John's, Hurricane Maria was the longest night of their lives.

The two men were on the small Caribbean island of Dominica for — coincidentally — a climate-change project funded by the International Development Bank. As the hurricane approached, nobody initially thought it would hit Dominica as hard as it did.

"Then, around mid-afternoon, it started to intensify from Category 2 to 4, and sitting right in front of where we were," Eid told CBC's On the Go on Wednesday.

Coffin said that even as the forecast worsened, and guests at their hotel took shelter in their rooms, no one was fully prepared for the storm's severity.

"[The hotel] basically anticipated the next day they'd have some disruption during breakfast and then by lunchtime it'd be business as usual. Maybe some damage, but that was it, and as we all know, it didn't turn out that way at all."

One example: Before the storm, their rooms had ceilings. By the morning, they didn't.

Took shelter under desks

Around 7 p.m. that day, the wind really started howling, he said, and soon the roof was leaking. An hour later, he heard some of the roof of the hotel rip off, and the rain began pouring in.

"At that time, I took shelter," he said. "I realized it's too late now to do anything, so I put pillows under the desk and I grabbed the bedspread, which was nice and thick, I wrapped myself under it, put the chair against the desk, put my suitcase at the foot," he said.

"Then I grabbed my computer off my desk, put it in my knapsack, put the knapsack as my pillow … and then, after this, the whole roof blew out and the rain started to come in fast, and then the electricity also, the power was gone."

Over in his room, Coffin was having much the same experience. He crawled under his desk, using his suitcase as a barrier, got as low as he could, and stuck his head under a chair because he was worried about the desk itself collapsing.

As the hurricane battered their hotel, said Eid, he frequently thought he might not make it out alive.

"It was the longest eight hours of my life, and every minute, and every swish of wind and every bang, I felt like it's the end," he said. "Your whole life goes around in front of your eyes during that time."

Coffin said it was around midnight — he estimates, since with electricity and cell service out it was difficult to tell time — that he thought he was a goner.

"There was a wall unit, a decorative piece of wood that the TV was attached to, and it was behind the desk, and at some point the door blew open and the wind gusted into the room and up through the roof," he said.

"I guess the roof was gone by this point, and that piece of wood basically came off the wall. I didn't know what was happening; I was just here under the desk, and next thing I feel the desk, the chair and the wall behind me moving. And I said, 'Is this it? Is this the hotel collapsing around me?'"

No idea whether men were alive or dead

Once it got closer to the dawn, with light starting to return to the room, the men started to believe they'd make it. They dug themselves out of their respective desk-fortresses — first Coffin, who then went to check on Eid, and cleared away the debris. While Coffin's room remained largely intact, Eid's was destroyed.

Back home, their wives had no idea whether their husbands were alive or dead, having lost contact during the storm.

"We were desperate to make sure we get some communication," said Eid. "We know now we're safe, but the family don't know that. It was an anxious moment."

That was the worst part for Coffin, whose phone didn't survive the storm — being aware that his family had no idea whether he was alive or dead.

"When I got up in the morning and saw a couple people started crawling out of their rooms and going round, first thought was, 'Do you have cell service? Can I use your phone?'" he said, only to learn that cell service had gone down overnight.

That night, some IT professionals who had been in the hotel managed to briefly get some service, and offered to get word to their loved ones.

"It was a big relief for us," said Eid.

Mixed feelings as they left

Two days later, the men caught a ferry off the island to begin their journey home, leaving behind a sobering picture of devastation on the island.

"This country is going to take a long time, years, to recover," said Eid. "I wish that the world would go and help these people. And I will do whatever I can to help."

Coffin had mixed feelings leaving, because he realized how fortunate he was just to be able to leave.

"There were people down there who lost everything they have," he said. "There was one gentleman at the hotel, he was a member of staff there, and he came in with his work clothes on. He said, 'This is all I have left. Everything else I have is gone.' It really makes you think about how lucky you are."