IT has been a long night for St Helier residents as the town’s homes and hotels took a battering from Storm Ciarán.
Town centre manager Connor Burgher said that while no one had been sheltered in the Town Hall, they had been “on standby to receive Islanders needing help”.
He continued: “Those that needed relocating, of which there were quite a few, have been relocated straight to hotels, which was handled excellently by police and emergency services.”
Mr Burgher said the teams had been “out and about” all day clearing roads, cutting trees, and working alongside teams from the infrastructure department and the parish’s honorary police officers.
The priorities have been to clear main roads and parishioners’ immediate safety, he said.
In reaction to the widespread damage through town, he said: “I only have a bit of a sense, going around our parks and just seeing the number of trees down.
“I don’t think I’ve quite got my thoughts together on it, but it’s devastating to see that so many trees have been damaged and so many buildings have taken such an intense battering.”
Tim O’Sullivan, general manager at the Grand Hotel, warned of month-long repairs to the waterfront hotel which took a battering.
However, he praised the maintenance team and all the staff, adding that a “fabulous job” to prepare the site helped to minimise damage and allow it to remain open.
He said: “The damage is mostly on the outside, to the exterior walls and gables. The render has come away from the wall. That looks a lot worse than what it actually is, but it will require re-rendering and getting that back to the right state.”
He continued: “We’ve had some roof damage done too, with some tiles blown off and quite a bit of significant damage done around various parts of the roof.”
“The priority for us is to repair the roof, because the longer it’s left as it is, the worse it gets.
“It won’t be a quick job though,” he added. “While we can get immediate and temporary repairs into place for the roof, we are looking at months of rebuild here. It will not be quick.”
As he spoke to the JEP, contractors were on their way.
