A MAN from Mary Tavy is desperately waiting to hear news of his brother who is out of contact on the hurricane-struck British Virgin Island of Tortola.

Businessman Myles Simpson has not heard from his brother Chris and sister-in-law Karen since the Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean island a week ago.

The couple, who run a yacht business on the island, are safe and well, he has established, from a Facebook message posted by neighbours.

However he is desperate to make contact with his brother.

‘It has been eight days now since I’ve heard from them which is a bit worrying,’ he said on Wednesday. ‘They must have had a terrifying experience with bits of their house flying off. It’s a horrible situation.

‘I have not had any communication, they haven’t been able to message, phone or email. The only message we have had is from somebody on Facebook on the island. I have seen a picture of their house on Facebook which does reassure me that it hasn’t been damaged that badly, but it does indicate that everything around them has been destroyed. It is like a scene from Vietnam.’

He said his brother, who used to live in Plymouth where he started a yachting business, had taken the precaution of building hurricane-proof steel into his house.

Mr Simpson said only 1% of the properties in Tortola were like his brother’s and the remaining 99% had been flattened by the disaster.

‘We must also not forget all the domestic and farm animals that are presently running around without any food.’

He called on people to support the appeal to help islanders.