Storm Ciarán: One year on and how it's still affecting people in Jersey

It will be a year tomorrow since Storm Ciarán swept through the Channel Islands and some people are still feeling the effects.

Hurricane-force winds and the most powerful tornado ever recorded in Jersey caused destruction on an unprecedented scale. One islander whose home was damaged says the experience altered her perspective on life.

Rachel O'Brien said: "I actually took a year off work which I hadn't planned on doing. I needed time and wanted to be around the kids a bit as well to look after them, they're grown up but we wanted to be together.

"I think it was good because I don't really like change and this was a big change, but it's made me incredibly grateful. We should have been dead that night."Hundreds of homes were damaged in the storm and for some, the repair work is yet to be completed.

The demand for contractors continues to outweigh the supply, with many residents still in temporary accommodation. Fliquet in St Martin was also severely affected. What was a vibrant Jersey community is now derelict and the homes are boarded up. Tony Perchard is lucky to be alive after he was sucked out of his bed less than a second before debris landed exactly where he had been lying. He says: "It's going to take a while even longer to come to terms with it all because we've no longer got a house, the house is a shell, we lost everything, clothes, the lot.

His wife, Evie, added: "Things that you've accumulated that you thought were really important aren't and the one thing that has struck me is to appreciate people as we have had such kindness and generosity that it really makes you think, 'well, there's got to be something rather than living for what you can get'."

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