Michael Auger, a member of 2014 Britain’s Got Talent winners Collabro, has revealed he was on holiday in the Caribbean when deadly Hurricane Irma hit.
The singer’s bandmates Jamie Lambert, Matthew Pagan and Thomas J. Redgrave said they feared he was going to die after Michael messaged them saying he had to barricade himself in the bathroom of his hotel room for eight hours.
The 27-year-old told The Mirror he “remembered seeing kids running round screaming” and people “lifting palm trees off their cars”.
Read more: Loose Women fans love “beautiful” new panellist
Jamie, Matt and Thomas admitted they thought they were going to lose Michael forever after struggling to get in contact with him.
Michael said: “I was on holiday in Saint Martin when Hurricane Irma hit.
“The day after, I literally had to push the hotel door open because there was so much debris.
“I remember seeing kids running round screaming who I think had lost their parents, people lifting palm trees off their cars, there was looting going on.”
He added: “Obviously the destruction that was there I can’t even describe it, it was like a film set or something.”
The deadly hurricane has left thousands of people across America and the Caribbean without homes and some losing their family members.
Jamie, who was desperately trying to contact Michael from the UK, went on to say: “We were back home watching it all unfold with horror and the last message we’d got from Michael was, ‘I’m going in the bathroom now to barricade myself in’.
“You hear these horror stories but it genuinely is the worst hurricane to ever hit the Atlantic.
“The winds were stronger than people had ever seen, they were talking about creating a new category for it and we’re sitting at home looking at this and suddenly he goes offline and we can’t reach him.”
He continued: “We didn’t know if he was alive for about 12 hours.
“It must be awful to be in this situation, and we’ve been through it because we didn’t know whether or not he was going to come home.”
The singer finally made it safely home after being evacuated to Puerto Rico and getting a flight back to London.
Luckily for Michael he wasn’t injured by the disaster but because of the fear he and his band mates experienced they have decided to release their song Lighthouse as a charity single.
All the money raised will go to Save The Children which helps provide food, shelter and food to youngsters in need.
Speaking about the single Michael said: “The devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Irma is truly heart-breaking for the people of the Caribbean and Florida.
“I know I was very lucky to escape unharmed but there are many thousands of people who have lost everything and will feel the effects of this disaster for years to come.”
Read more: Rio Ferdinand ready to propose to girlfriend Kate Wright, reports suggest
The musical theatre group won the eighth series of the talent competition three years ago after beating runner-up Lucy Kay and Bars and Melody, who bagged third place.
Collabro were originally made up of five members but Richard Hadfield left the group in June last year.
Following their win the group went on to be voted the UK’s favourite BGT winners in a National Poll.
Good for them.