Storm Ciarán: Plans submitted to reconstruct devastated homes in Jersey

Tuesday, 2 April 2024 12:00

Plans for reconstruction have been submitted but some people still have not been able to look over the remains of their home.

Homes at the Fliquet could be rebuilt to fix damage caused by the storm on 1 November 2023.

Evie and Toney Perchard were seconds from losing their lives after a tornado ripped through the east of Jersey.

The couple have been living in a bungalow in Trinity since the destruction.

Evie says they are thankful to still be here.

"We are totally amazed that we are alive, because we really shouldn't be.

Our bedroom was utterly devastated. Tony was sucked out of bed by the tornado a nanosecond before a 10ft long concrete window lintel landed exactly where he had been lying, and he would have been killed.

Mrs Perchard says they have lived there for five decades and really want to go back.

"I seriously miss being able to stand at my bedroom window and look across to the coast of France and have nothing between us and them. However, if that can't be, then it can't be, and we have to accept that.

My main concern at the moment is to try to rescue whatever we can rescue from the house. Apparently, nearly everything has 'had its chips' and until we actually get in there and see it, we don't know.

I am living in hope that little memory stuff and things that I really treasure will be okay."