Martin, except Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy and French portion of St. Martin. At 1500 UTC, Puerto Rico was put under a Hurricane Watch. At 1700 UTC, Guadeloupe, St. Barthelemy, and French portion of St. Martin were put under a hurricane watch. Four hours later, Puerto Rico, U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and Guadeloupe were put under a hurricane warning. Throughout the night, several watches and warnings were discontinued. At 1500 UTC September 15, Dominican Republic from Cabrera to Cabo Engano were put under a hurricane watch as Marilyn approached. During the night of September 16, all currently active watches and warnings were discontinued. At around the same time, a new Hurricane watch was released for Turks and Caicos and Mayaguana, Acklins, and the Crooked Islands of the southeastern Bahamas. This warning was discontinued within 48 hours. At 1500 UTC September 18, Bermuda came under a Tropical Storm Watch, which was upgraded to a warning in six hours. The warning was discontinued on September 19. The 250,000 residents of Barbados spent the night of September 13 in shelters. Impact Marilyn caused about $2.3 billion and 13 deaths throughout the United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The exact figure for damages in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico is not available, although the American Insurance Services Group set the combined damage at $875 million. Aside from high winds and seas, one possible explanation for the storm's heavy damage may have been complacency on the part of local island populations. Marilyn followed on the heels of Luis, a more powerful Category 4 hurricane initially predicted to pass very close to St. Thomas. This prediction prompted locals to be particularly thorough in their pre-storm preparations; however, Luis passed further away from the island and caused relatively moderate damage. Virgin Islanders questioned the accuracy of the National Hurricane Center wind advisories, as Hurricane Marilyn caused significant damage for a mere "category 2" storm. Damage on St. Thomas was remiscent of the damage seen on St. Croix in 1989, when Hurricane Hugo, a category 4 storm, caused catastrophic damage. Because St. Thomas is a very hilly island, it is possible that sustained winds on exposed hills (some of which have elevations that are thousands of feet above sea level) were significantly stronger than the sea-level wind speed estimates given by the hurricane center in its main advisory. Residents also reported tornado vortices in certain neighborhoods.