A zoology expert has told of his escape from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Mitch in Central America.

Christopher Poonian, 21, of East Terrace, Walton, was scuba diving on the tiny island of Utila just off the coast of Honduras when news of the natural disaster first broke three weeks ago.

With other islanders he anxiously followed its path. "We had cable TV and knew long before. Radio and other reports suggested we would be directly in the eye of the hurricane. It was very worrying," said Chris.

The island was battered with 120 to 130mph winds and Mr Poonian said three or four homes on the island were completely blown away.

Mr Poonian said they were totally cut off. The primary concern of the islanders was to get news of relatives on the mainland to see if they were safe. "All we had were radio reports."

Other problems were food shortages and the authorities imposed tough restrictions on islanders in a bid to control the crisis.

The destruction could have been far worse, but luckily the eye of the storm missed the area by around 30 miles.

It was not until ten days later that Christopher, who had been on the island for two months, was eventually able to get off. He arrived home a week ago.

Mr Poonian, who at seven was one of the youngest people to join MENSA and passed his 11 plus at nine, left for the tropical rainforest of Costa Rica last year.

The zoology graduate had been working on a scientific project with iguanas before beginning a new study of leatherback turtles.

He was in charge of a hatchery and then trekked through the tropical rain forest to Nicaragua and on to Honduras.

Now he is looking for another adventurous project abroad.

In Honduras and Nicaragua whole villages were obliterated by landslides and at least ten thousand killed while thousands remain unaccounted for.

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