A HAMPSHIRE businesswoman was today celebrating a lucky escape after her luxury hotel on the Caribbean island of Grenada escaped the ferocious force of Hurricane Ivan.

Amid the devastation Julia Montgomery's hotel remains intact and offers shelter to its staff who lost their homes and everything they own in the most powerful hurricane to hit the Caribbean in ten years.

Hurricane Ivan, with 160mph winds, was today on a direct course for Jamaica, Cuba and the southern United States after devastating Grenada on Tuesday.

At least 15 people were killed, and Ivan damaged 90 per cent of homes on the 'spice isle'. The destruction of a 17th-century prison left inmates on the loose and looting erupted.

Ms Montgomery, from Sherfield English near Romsey, faced an agonising wait for news. The storm cut all communications with the country of 100,000 people, and halted radio transmissions on the island.

Ms Montgomery and her partner Peter Pilbrow, pictured above, established the ten-room Petit Bacaye Cottage Hotel in Grenada ten years ago. They have since pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds into refurbishing the hotel, where rooms cost up to £150 per night.

This summer they spent three months fitting new floors and roofs and making improvements to rooms.

They heard no news until last night when their Grenadine hotel manager managed to make a brief phone call.

"We were told that the hotel has not been as badly damaged as I thought it had been," said Ms Montgomery.

"We have lost most of the roofs and some wood, but the structures themselves are basically sound.

"It was a fractured and brief call but it was just such a relief. Our poor staff have mostly lost their homes and are all together at the hotel."

Before last night's good news all the couple could be sure of was that its manager had taken the hotel's four remaining guests to the village's hurricane shelter at a nearby school.

"Since hearing the hurricane had hit the island on Tuesday we had absolutely no informationabout anything until last night," added Ms Montgomery.

"All I could do was wait. It has been so worrying. We have lavished the place, not only with money, but with our time.

"There was nothing more frightening than watching reports on the television. All you could see was this red dot moving closer to the island.

"I wish I'd been there. I don't think the manager had ever been through a hurricane preparation."

Ms Montgomery hopes to fly to Grenada on Sunday to assess the damage.

"I have been getting so many calls from people who have booked holidays at the hotel. I haven't known what to tell them," she added.

Foreign Office officials warned that travel to and from the island was unwise.