The old man with the flowing white beard sat on the veranda of his thatched home and looked across scores of acres of parched, cracked earth.

The storm destroyed hundreds of thatched homes and caused a five-foot-high tidal surge that send salt water into crop fields in low areas.

On exhibit are Hawaiian artifacts, implements, a thatched home, a Taoist shrine, Japanese stoneware and a large mineral collection.

Debbie, 30, was asleep upstairs in her £130,000 thatched home as Gary Harmes tried to stop his lorry.

He said he had stayed in the village until the first of the thatched homes was erected, fishing boats repaired and new nets brought in.

These thatched homes conserved energy and provided hunkered-down protection from the constant winds.

The winds toppled several thatched homes on Cozumel.

He named his thatched home "Château Pierrefonds", apparently providing the name for the future city.

Burmese ground troops fired mortar shells and set ablaze 80 thatched homes, according to rebel accounts.

There were thatched homes, made from sturdy thin wood.