IRISH parents living in the Caribbean have spoken of their relief after their baby girl arrived before Hurricane Irma tore through their home.
New dad Joe Ryan spoke to RTÉ's Morning Ireland about the birth of his baby girl before the hurricane hit their home on the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Joe Ryan and his wife Claire McAvinchey left their low-lying home on the island with their newborn baby girl Maebh and three-year-old son Óisín, and are currently staying in a high rise hotel in Providenciales.
"The reason why we moved is because where we were is low lying and we thought, based on what the predictions are for storm surge and rainfall, our home is likely to get flooded. We were set up in the house, we had a generator, and all our windows boarded up, we just said if the water comes into the house, we couldn't stay there so we decided to move out before we had to face that," he said.
Describing their daughter's birth earlier this week, Mr Ryan said she arrived 'in the nick of time.'
BORN BEFORE THE HURRICANE: Story of new born Maebh Ryan born to her Irish mum and dad in Turks and Caicos. Coming up on @morningireland pic.twitter.com/JHiBJLX7Po
— cian mccormack (@cian_mccormack) September 8, 2017
"The child was due to come on Saturday, and as things happened, she went over her due date. We were getting anxious as we could see the storm getting nearer but luckily Claire went into labour yesterday and delivered the baby so in that sense we were very lucky that she didn't have to stay in the hospital tonight, it was just in the nick of time that we had the baby.
"It was one of those situations that we were hoping and praying the baby would come on her due date, but that didn't happen. We got more and more anxious as day after day went past and it would have just been horrendous for Claire as she would have had to go to hospital, and I wouldn't be able to because I'm looking after Óisín and she'd have to stay there by herself.
"We're just very grateful that the baby came along when it did, and baby is fit and healthy and we're all in the hotel together, so we're grateful with how it worked out.
"Tomorrow is what we're dreading, what we're going to wake up to in the morning."
Turks and Caicos is the latest target for category five Hurricane Irma, which has already ripped through neighbouring islands Barbuda, St Martin and Haiti.
Describing the scenes on the island, Mr Ryan said: "The wind is quite heavy now, the trees are bending and bouncing backwards and forwards, the waves are huge, the beach is starting to get taller as the surge pushes up a little bit.
"We've seen a category two hurricane here, and that's where we're probably at now, but we've never had a category five come through here like this before, so we don't really know what to expect but based on what we've seen on TV from St. Martin and Barbuda, we're hoping that it doesn't hit us that hard. I think the difference is they were hit directly by the eye of the storm, whereas we're about 30 miles north of the eye.
"We don't really know what to expect, but right now there's a lot of debris, and trees looking like they're ready to snap and that's probably what's going to happen in the next few hours.
"We do feel safe, particularly as we're on the fifth floor of the hotel so there isn't as much chance of getting hit by any projectiles. The only thing we're concerned about is water getting in through the doors of the hotel, or even -worst case scenario - the shutters are hurricane proof there's a possibility they might be blown in or broken. For now, we feel good. We're not overly concerned, but we don't know what's going to happen.
"This is a storm that nobody has ever really witnessed before, we're just hunkered down and waiting to see what will happen."
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