Residents of a Bermudian-run orphanage in Haiti braced for impact yesterday as Category 5 Hurricane Irma bore down on the region.

Feed My Lambs Ministry in Montrouis has stockpiled enough food to last two weeks and final preparations were being made.

The storm, one of the strongest recorded in the Atlantic, inflicted major damage in Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin, and had moved on to Puerto Rico after making landfall in Barbuda early yesterday morning.

Linda Adderley, sister of Feed My Lambs founder Phillip Rego, said: “They are definitely taking this quite seriously. They are preparing.”

She said staff at the compound, which consists of an orphanage, school, farm and medical clinic, had finished plastering the roof to stop it leaking.

They had also cut down trees to minimise potential damage to the buildings and windows, and had stockpiled two cylinders of gas.

Ms Adderley added: “The orphanage has enough food for two weeks. They aren’t taking any chances because if the bridges go out, they can’t get anything.”

She said that they had asked the students in Port-au-Prince, on Haiti’s north coast, to make their way back to the orphanage “for safety”.

Ms Adderley said they are also keeping an eye on the Dominican Republic, where another two students are at university.

And while she said that Montrouis is farther south, it could still be affected if there is heavy rainfall, which could lead to flooding and debris washing down from the mountains.

By noon yesterday, a hurricane warning had been issued for Haiti’s northern coast and a tropical storm watch for the western coast.

In the Bahamas, where last year’s Hurricane Matthew hit hard, resident Guilden Gilbert Jr told The Royal Gazette that locals were taking no chances.

“The last track has it going about 130 miles to our west,” Mr Gilbert reported from Nassau, where skies remained clear.

“Turks and Caicos are probably going to get hit very badly. It was going 185mph when it hit Barbuda. We just have to prepare and hope for the best — it doesn’t make sense leaving anything to chance.”

• Feed My Lambs Ministry will be hosting a free appreciation evening at BUEI from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Wednesday [September 13] to provide an update on the work the charity has been doing in Haiti.

RSVP by e-mailing regolinda@yahoo.com.