A POLYTUNNEL worth £12,000 was one of the casualties of Storm Goretti, which hit Jersey last week with up to 95mph winds.
Grow Jersey co-founder Louise Carson said she was “absolutely devastated” to find that the community-funded polytunnel had been destroyed by the storm.
The non-profit organisation and a community project aims to tackle nutritional poverty, low mood and isolation, and more.
“B&Q are getting tarps together to help us out, so that’s a huge help,” explained Ms Carson.
“But this was brand new and expensive, funded by the community, and now it is gone. We just want to spread awareness.”
Philip Le Maistre from Master Farms said that his polytunnels, which were only put up last year, also sustained damage.
“We are waiting for some warmer weather because when you reapply the plastic, it’s got to be quite sunny,” he explained. “Because the warmer it is, the best the plastic stretches.”
“I’m just glad we are all okay and none of the animals got hurt or escaped.”
He added: “It’s never nice when a storm comes through of that kind of that intensity but fortunately no one was injured. All the animals were okay, and we were all okay. That is the main thing.
“We had a little bit of damage to some of the sheds, and then we had quite a few trees down, and a few fields had wires on the floor. But thankfully, we had people out straight away in the morning, as soon as it was safe to go out.”
Good news came from Brooklands Farm which suffered “minimal damage” last week – and welcomed seven new piglets during Storm Goretti.
Kate Hackett, who recently took over the running of Brooklands Farm from her dad Jon, said: “It is a wonderful way to spend my days, but a lot of heartache comes with it.
“I’ve had to toughen up since I took over. I don’t know how my dad coped. I fall in love with all of [the animals].”
