ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada - When Russ Fielden, who had worked all over the Caribbean with a yacht company, decided to settle down and run his own resort, he chose Grenada for several reasons.

"It's one of the least-developed but most-accessible islands. The people are delightful. The waterfalls are beautiful. But the main reason I chose Grenada," he says, underlining his words with some irony, "is that it's below the hurricane belt."

Fielden, whose job involved securing expensive yachts in the face of approaching storms, says he had already lived through at least 11 hurricanes, in areas where they were considered more likely.

"A hurricane hadn't hit Grenada in 50 years. It wasn't considered to be in the 'hurricane belt', although it is in the 'hurricane zone," he said. "Then we met Ivan. It was like no other hurricane and I thought I'd seen it all."

"This roof blew right off this deck, of course," says Fielden, sipping a glass of wine in his resort's open-air restaurant that twinkles with tiny lights over the sea. "We lost all our roofs. The wind was so hard and so strong the air actually went white. I'd never seen that before.

When Ivan finally exited after six hours, 39 people had been killed, 90 per cent of the homes on Grenada were damaged and most of the precious nutmeg trees were uprooted.

"We were one of the few (who) stayed open the whole time," says Fielden. "As the tourists flew out, the insurance people came in. My wife was on the desk and she said, 'Well, there's no roof, no water, no electricity and we're charging rack rates.' People booked the rooms anyway."

A year after Ivan and mere months after the lesser Emily, Grenada (Gre-nay-da) is struggling to get back on its feet. The sea still sparkles a beautiful turquoise. The beaches -- 45 of them white-sand and nine volcanic black -- are still beautiful. Some of the most exclusive (small and sturdily built) resorts hardly skipped a rum punch.

Overall, Harry Belafonte's "island in the sun" looks surprisingly good. The hills that were decimated by high winds once again look lush and green (although much of that green is a creeper vine that might be strangling out damaged trees). Aid has poured in from around the world and a building boom is on.

"We are, after one year, where I thought we'd be only after 10," says Frank. "I see what's happening in New Orleans and I feel that we are blessed in comparison."

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