A historical society yesterday appealed for volunteers and palmetto leaves to help repair a replica of a 400 year old Bermuda settler’s home damaged during last month’s Hurricane Humberto.

The cabin, built using the methods the first settlers used in 1612, lost much of its palmetto-thatched roof in the hurricane and it is estimated that several hundred leaves will be needed to repair it.

Rick Spurling, president of the St David’s Island Historical Society, which owns the cabin and the nearby Carter House and Museum, said: “In about two weeks time, we are going to start rethatching the roof.

“We estimate we will need about 100 Bermuda palmetto, Sabal bermudana, leaves each day that we work on it and we need to put up about 800 leaves in total. We have a few areas including Carter House where we can collect about 100 leaves.

“After that, we will need the public’s support to get leaves here, but we can’t receive them all at once, they need to be staggered. Once they have been cut they need to rest for three days, so they become supple, but we can’t leave them for more than ten days, as they start to stiffen up, so there is a window.”

Mr Spurling added: “We don’t want old leaves and we definitely don’t want Chinese fan palms which look very similar, they do not work.”

He was speaking as staff and volunteers yesterday started to pull down the thatching from the damaged roof.

The society will also check the cabin for structural damage.

Mr Spurling said anyone who wanted to donate palmetto leaves should contact him, so that a delivery schedule can be drawn up. The thatching crew will be hired by the organisation, but Mr Spurling said volunteers were also needed to assist the professionals, with their work.

He added: “We will need volunteers from about November 5 to 20, we need leaves and labour.

“We will assess all the wood and determine whether we need to replace lathes or rafters that support the roof. We are using cedar wood which is protected, you can’t cut them down, but when you have a hurricane like we just had, we have maybe ten branches and we will use them to shore up the roof.”

The cabin used Virginia cedar when it was built in 2012.

It was hoped the work would be completed in time for the annual Carter House Family Christmas event, scheduled for December 1 from 4pm to 7pm.

* Anyone interested in supporting the work with leaves, labour or donations should contact Mr Spurling on 297-1953 or e-mail rspurling162@icloud.com