Islanders are still rebuilding their lives after Storm Ciarán hit the island in 2023.

The British Isles' strongest tornado entered the island at St Clement on the evening of 1 November with wind speeds of up to 160mph.

It ripped through eastern parishes at around midnight, destroying homes, businesses and cars, taking out hundreds of trees in its way.

Islanders were taken to hospital and more than one hundred people were forced to leave their damaged properties.

The storm hits Victoria Avenue

Evie and her husband Tony Perchard were one of the families displaced by the storm, which took out the roof of their home in Fliquet and nearly killed them.

Tony had to have 11 stitches, after being thrown out of bed a split second before a 10ft long concrete window lintel landed exactly where he had been lying.

READ MORE: 'All we can do is hold on to the memories'

Evie and Tony's bedroom after the storm

The pair were rescued by Jersey emergency services, but lifelong memories including precious family photos were permanently destroyed. 

Evie tells us that one year on, the pair are still living in temporary accommodation in Trinity:

"Mentally, we're absolutely fine, we're just not allowing ourselves to think 'oh how awful - wish this had never happened' because it did happen and there's nothing we can do to change that.

"We're very, very happy where we are in Trinity, but our house will possible be another two years before its liveable. We're settled here for the moment.

"We're resigned to that. It's the paperwork, the planning and red tape which is going to take a long time before they can physically start re-building."

The Perchard house

Plans have been submitted to rebuild The Perchard's home in Fliquet. 

Until then, Evie says she's very thankful to be settled in her current home:

"We are and always will be exceedingly grateful though to the Parish of Trinity for letting us and our next door neighbour have a house here each, and they've said we can stay here for as long as we like.

"We're obviously paying rent, but we're really, really grateful to them and they've made us feel so welcome. That's helped considerably."

Evie and Tony Perchard

Clean-up operations have been taking place in the island since the storm, with many survivors who saw their homes devastated receiving government funding to help rebuild their lives. 

More than £80,000 was distributed to more than 50 families form the Bailiff's Fund, which was used to provide things like replacement clothing and children's toys, as well as structural damage and temporary housing solutions. 

Emergency services helping clear up storm damage

Kevin Murphy, Channel Islander Emergency Planning Officer, has this message one year on:

“I wish to thank all islanders for following all the advice and guidance that was issued at the time, and it was because of their efforts - alongside the multi-agency response - that harm to life was minimised.”