'Your whole life is turned upside down': Islanders still suffering from Storm Ciarán

  • Katya Fowler speaks to islanders 4 weeks on from the storm...

This week marks four weeks since Storm Ciarán swept across the Channel Islands, leaving many people displaced and in financial hardship.

Storm Ciarán posed a 'threat to life' across both Bailiwicks and Saturday 1 December will be one month since it impacted many lives.

Islanders experienced winds of up to 104mph and suffered a confirmed tornado.

A roofing company in Jersey have predicted that it will take up to three years to get the island back to the state it was in before the storm.Daniel Whitton once worked as a roofer in Jersey from 1997 until 2001 and decided to return to offer his services after seeing the "devastation" it caused.

He says he has not seen anything like this in his lifetime: "Celilings about to collapse above children's bedrooms, water dripping through electrics, electrics tripping, it's bad, it's bad."

121 residents across the island were evacuated from their homes, leaving many islanders to live in hotel rooms.Michaela Carruthers has been living in a hotel for four weeks after her home in St Clement was destroyed, she says: "Where I was staying before, there's no way we can go back, it's demolished.

"It's like something in a movie, you don't realise how bad it was."

She added: "Lots of people I saw in the hotel were quite traumatised by it, your whole life is turned upside down".

Michaela has now moved into a new home, but says: "As soon as I moved in here I was thinking 'Oh the place looks more solid, more stronger, the windows look better' and you are, you're looking at it from a structural sense, saying it looks like a better stronger building".

Michaela lived in her St Clement house for 17 years before the storm forced her to move out

The Bailiffs Fund to offer short-term aid to those individuals and families affected by the storm opened yesterday (29 November) and islanders have until 7 December to apply.

Marcus Troy, Constable of St Clement says, "The Bailiffs Fund is also something they must apply to. We don't want people to fall by the wayside.

"Losing a house and your contents is bad enough, please contact either fund and we will do as much as we can to help people."

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