Hurricane Ike delivered a powerful blow to the island of Inagua on Sunday, tearing off roof tops, flooding streets and knocking out phone lines. Unofficial reports are that the island sustained millions of dollars in damage. Satellite images showed the eye of the Category 4 hurricane, packing 135 mile-an-hour winds, passing directly over Great Inagua around 11 a.m. Sunday.

Officials say the southernmost island experienced massive devastation as a result of the storm, but this damage assessment was only preliminary as the island was still experiencing hurricane force winds late in the afternoon yesterday.

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham doesn't expect to be on the ground in Inagua before Tuesday, but he said he will have more detailed information from Defence Force and NEMA officials already there, sometime today.

While addressing the nation last evening, Ingraham said that he was extremely satisfied with NEMA's operation in this time of crisis.

"The government will cause its departments to go and do assessments in these communities and report back," Ingraham said. "At the end of the exercise we will make a full report to the population as to the extent of the damage."

"We are very pleased that the building codes have held up quite well, especially with a category 4 hurricane and that the people in the community have followed at the necessary advisories given by NEMA...," The prime minister added. "We have been spared a major, major disaster."

Among the many damaged buildings on the island, The Mathew Town Police Station's shutters were blown away, causing water breach and flooding. The shutters of the St. Philips Community Center, which is also a shelter, were blown off. Zion Baptist Church - a second shelter - also sustained water damage.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) confirmed that the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) office in Mathew Town, Inagua was severely damaged.

During a national update at NEMA headquarters following the storm yesterday BTC's Vice President of Wireless and Internet Services Tellus Symonette affirmed that the telecommunications company experienced extensive damage to its property.

He explained that around 11am a Troposcopic Dish installed in Inagua was blown off of a mounting pad, on a tower and fell through the roof of the company's office building.

"This resulted in a gaping hole to the roof...that caused water to rain down on the equipment in Inagua," Symonette said. "We lost services to land lines on Inagua, however at this time we have both TDMA & GSM cellular working, but we are unsure how long that will last because they are operating in a building that is exposed to the elements and are operating on standby battery."

"We also have reports that we lost quite abit of telephone cables on the island of Inagua." He added, "On Mayaguana we also lost services a lot of which was due to the loss of commercial power. However the cellular services on Mayaguana are operating fine."

Symonette also revealed that telephone services to the island of Acklins have also been cut off, and that the GSM cellular service is up and running in certain portions of the island.

"We have a team on standby at BTC, waiting to go out to Inagua, Acklins and Mayaguana once we can go to do an assessment and to bring some services back online," Symonette said. "We believe t hat we can go down there quickly and if possible do something in the interim to provide some service until we are able to come up with a final solution."

In addition, land lines in Mayaguana and Acklins have been out since Saturday night due to power outages.

NEMA officials are urging residents to exercise extreme caution at this time and remain indoors until the 'all-clear' is given. NEMA Coordinator Commander Stephen Russell reported no deaths or injuries resulting from Hurricane Ike.

He pointed out that assessment teams are presently on standby ready to jump into action.

RBDF Commodore Clifford Scavella reported that a building at the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Base, a portion of the roof of the galley, sustained roof damage. He added, however, that his officers stand ready to provide assistance to the community of Inagua.

"We have already deployed some people to the various islands...we expect that under NEMA's direction to deploy more," Scavella said.

V. Alfred Gray, Member of Parliament for MICAL, which includes Inagua, stayed in contact with the island administrator and chief councilor on the island for most of the day.

"From all appearances, there seems to be some devastation taking place. Inagua is in the middle of the storm and they seem to have another two or three hours to go," Gray said shortly before 3 p.m. yesterday. "But several buildings have been decimated. The administrator's complex is very badly damaged.

"Several houses have lost their roofs, light poles are down, (BTC's) tower is down and so communication is gone, land lines are gone and they are operating by satellite phone. There's massive devastation from what they have described from looking through their windows."

Gray said he and members of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) will take a charter into the southeastern Family Islands to survey the damage.

"I've been in touch with our party, and the leader, the chairman and several of us will go down to look at and after those people. But, there's been no loss of life and so far everybody is safe and well," he said.

"Some residents have moved into the shelters. There is no surge or flooding or anything like that. Most of what they described seems to be wind damage."

Gray said he was also in touch with Mayaguana officials and added that the island is "in good shape."

"The hurricane is east-northeast of Inagua and traveling in a west-southwesterly motion, so it is going away from Mayaguana and headed towards Cuba. So, Mayaguana has had some slight damage, but nothing to write home about," he said.

"At the moment, Inagua is experiencing the hurricane. Mayaguana has had outer bands and fringes. Acklins and Crooked Island will experience outer bands. Inagua was in the direct path. We had expected that Inagua would be experiencing the brunt of the storm."

Gray said he took to the airwaves to encourage residents to stay indoors until the hurricane had passed.

"I just want them to stay inside and ride it out. We're not able to report on all that has happened, because people have not had an opportunity to go out and assess the damage, but the chief councilor, and administrators have gone out to ensure that if there was anybody in need of help, they were there to render assistance," he said.

"So far, everybody is well. The property damage is plentiful, but as a people we will get through this together."

By ROGAN M. SMITH and STEPHEN GAY