West End residents rolled up their sleeves and joined in the massive clean-up after what some called the "hurricane with no name" pummelled the Island.

And most people whom The Royal Gazette spoke to in the wake of the clean-up said the storm came with little warning, taking them totally by surprise like Hurricane Emily in 1987.

Probably one of the more dramatic scenes after Thursday's storm was in Warwick at the junction of Cobb's Hill and Middle Road.

Dozens of onlookers gawked at a 50-foot Black Ebony tree which was uprooted and blocked traffic for more than 13 hours.

Parks Department senior superintendent Martin Brown said that once the tree fell around 10 p.m. on Thursday night, his team was on the scene with bulldozers and chainsaws working to fix the damage.

"We worked until about 11.30 p.m. Thursday, but the winds began to pick up, making it too dangerous for our guys," he said. "We came back out here this morning about 6.30 a.m. and started again. This was a stunning feature along the road here and now it's gone." And Mr. Brown said he was grateful for help from Works and Engineering, saying the joint effort allowed his men to be used elsewhere on the Island.

"Works and Engineering have been piling in and helping us with the job and we have crews working around the Island to try and clear the debris," he said. "I'm sure that we also have a lot of private contractors working to help as well."

He pointed out that the debris was being hauled away by at least 20 trucks as well as garbage trucks to help get the Island back to normal.

All through the West End, people were up bright and early cutting away fallen branches and clearing away flooded puddles.

Malcolm and Louise Seymour and were in the midst of yesterday's winds hauling away banana leaves and cutting up avocado tree branches.

"I heard the tree fall around 4 o'clock," Mr. Seymour said. "So, I have been up since about 8.30 a.m. My wife has been down in the garden clearing up the leaves. This tree has been here for about 15 years. But I have some of my neighbours coming to help me cut it away."

At the Sonesta Beach Hotel, the resident dive shop, Fantasea Dive, had their boat unexpectedly break away from her moorings and run up on the beach.

"I came up to see if there was any damage and to start clearing up and this is what I found," said Fantasea Dive manager Donna Blackley. "We were surprised at how strong the storm was. We didn't receive any warning. If we did, we would have secured the boat a lot stronger."

Ms Blackley said the boat did not appear to suffer any major damage and the effort to pull her off the beach will be planned around high tide.

The drive along Middle Road saw much of the same scenes.

Fallen trees, scattered lawn furniture, downed power lines, even scattered species of fish that were blown up with the waves onto land in the Dockyard area.

But most people said that despite the surprise and highwinds, they were thankful there were no serious injuries.