HUDDLED together in their hotel room, petrified Marie and Colin Jackson listened in horror as Hurricane Ike uprooted trees and ripped off roof tiles.

With just one candle to stave off the darkness and a single bottle of water, the Derby couple listened to the 135mph winds pounding the building.

Helpless, they expected the walls to cave in and believed they were spending their last living moments together.

Just hours before, they had landed in Cuba for a relaxing holiday and travelled to the Playa Costa Verde Hotel, in the Guardalavaca resort.

But at noon the wind began to pick up, signalling the start of a storm that was to kill four people and wreck tens of thousands of buildings.

Colin, 51, said: "At lunchtime, we had been told to stay in our room and not to leave, no matter what.

"But it was in the early evening that the storm really started. There were uprooted trees going past the window and we were just waiting for one of them to smash through the glass."

Late in the evening, the 135mph winds and the rain suddenly stopped and an eerie silence descended – with many holiday-makers thinking the hurricane had passed.

They were unaware that they were in the eye of the storm.

Marie, 29, who lives with Colin in Saffron Drive, Oakwood, said: "There was no noise – no wind, no rain, no birdsong.

"Everybody came out of their rooms because they thought the storm had finished.

"A member of staff came flying downstairs and told us to get back inside. Just as we did, there was a deafening whooshing sound as the wind started up again.

"The sheer violence of it hitting the walls made us think that things were going to break through them and that our lives were in danger.

"We were frightened to death. It was horrific."

Early the next morning, the storm passed and the couple left their hotel room to survey the damage.

Colin, a sheet-metal worker in Ripley, said: "I'd never seen anything like it in my life.

"More trees were lying on the ground than left standing, windows had been put through and there were slates lying on the ground.

"There was barely anything left of the hotel reception – the roof had been taken off and chairs were strewn all over the place.

"The beach hut wasn't there any more. There was no running water, no electricity. We were given food and bottled drinks by the hotel staff.

Marie, a nurse at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, added: "We heard that a hotel up the road had been hit by a 40ft wave."

With flights grounded by the Cuban government as a result of the storm, the pair did not know when they would be able to leave.

For the next few days, they slowly adjusted to the shock of what had happened, spending their time talking through the horrific events with other holiday-makers and helping to clear away some of the debris.

On Tuesday evening, they learned they were able to fly home, and the next day returned to England.

On the same flight were Sue Wilson, 45, and her 21-year-old daughter, Katherine, who arrived at the hotel at the same time as Colin and Marie.

Sue, of Harlesden Avenue, Mackworth, said: "On Saturday afternoon they warned us about the storm but we were still cheerful – we never imagined what would happen.

"They started putting sunbeds into the swimming pool because it would stop them from flying about in the wind.

"The scariest bit was when the eye of the storm came over.

"It was as though the television had been turned off – it suddenly became silent, just totally dead.

"We just sat waiting in the dark. Our hearts were hammering and our palms were sweating – it was the longest 20 minutes of our lives."

Hurricane Ike has continued northwards, with more than a million people in Texas advised to evacuate this week as the storm was expected to hit early today.

Ike earlier caused 66 deaths in Haiti and reportedly damaged 80% of the homes in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

All four of the Derby holiday-makers booked their holidays through First Choice.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "Because their holiday was significantly cut short as a result of the hurricane, customers were given the option of continuing their holiday in the Dominican Republic for its full duration.

"Alternatively, they were offered a refund for untaken accommodation."