The Chabad emissaries on the Caribbean island of St. Martin, which was ravaged by Hurricane Irma Wednesday, say they were saved by relocating into their mikveh during the heart of the storm.

“The winds were absolutely terrifying,” Rabbi Moishe Chanowitz told Chabad.org. “You could hear it; you feel the pressure in your ears. I thought the windows would explode at any moment.”

Chanowitz, who has lived in St. Martin for eight years with his wife and five children, said that during the heart of the storm the family decided to relocate into the mikveh area, which is situated in the center of the building and is completely windowless.

“The moment we got our last child into the mikveh area,” said the rabbi, “the front door of the Chabad House flew clean off. It was terrifying.”

While the mikveh has no windows, it does have a door, which the Chanowitzes blocked by dragging a commercial freezer in front of it.

“We have hurricane-proof doors and windows; it’s not like we weren’t prepared,” he said. “But this was off the charts. The mikveh saved us.”

Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm with top wind speeds of 185 miles per hour when it hit St. Martin, has killed at least 13 people in the Caribbean. It is now heading for Florida.

St. Martin is a 34-square-mile island located in the northern Leeward Islands. Control of the island is divided between France and the Netherlands.

“There is considerable damage,” said French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, adding that local authorities in St. Martin said 95 percent of the houses there had been damaged, and 60 percent were uninhabitable, Reuters reported.

“There is no electricity, no drinkable water, gasoline is unavailable,” Philippe said.