A high pressure system dubbed the Bermuda High kept Georges on its destructive east-to-west track, said meteorologist Jim Lushine at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

So instead of striking an island or two and then spinning northward out of the region as hurricanes generally do, Georges hit again and again.

It smashed public housing in Antigua, swamped the beaches of Guadeloupe and splintered the glass walls of St. Kitts' new airport terminal.

In Puerto Rico alone, property damage has surpassed $2 billion. Marinas on the east coast of Puerto Rico were badly damaged. "Sea Lovers Marina (in Fajardo) was destroyed, most boats got heavy damage and only a few survived. At Puerto Chico Marina to seaward of Sea Lovers and only protected from the east by a stone breakwater, the hurricane destroyed the first two rows of docks inside the breakwater and piled the boats that were tied up there in a big heap on the next finger west. Here's a chart of the area.

At Playa Salinas on the south coast of Puerto Rico east of Ponce, boats that tied up in the mangroves are reported to have survived okay. But it was a different story in the main harbor there.

"The docks are all gone," said Pat Williams of Playa Salinas. About 30 boats in the harbor either sank or were on shore. There is no electricity or telephones nor is any expected anytime soon." Marina Puerto Del Rey (five miles to the south of Puerto Chico, the newest and most expensive marina in Puerto Rico) was also badly damaged because it is in a similar situation, only protected by a stone breakwater. Boaters who made the mistake of doing business with this marina discovered the hard way after hurricane Georges what kind of control the management enforces over boat owners there. After many boats sank in their slips, the marina insisted owners must negotiate with the marina for the salvage rights to their boats!

Crossing the Mona Passage, Georges bore down on Hispaniola, an impoverished island of 15 million shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Its substandard housing proved no match for 110 mph winds, and emergency officials seemed unprepared for the disaster.

The numbers of homeless were staggering: More than 100,000 in the Dominican Republic, at least 18,000 in Haiti, at least 17,000 in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and 3,000 in St. Kitts - a tenth of that island's population.

The U.S. Virgin Islands - battered by Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and 1995's Marilyn, which destroyed 80% of the homes on St. Thomas - emerged relatively unscathed.