With gusts of over 60 mph, driving conditions were dangerous, especially along minor roads as branches and debris caused some to be closed.Honorary police forces had personnel on stand-by and St Helier had eight officers on duty from 5.30 this morning.
Met Office reports this morning said that the worst of the storm had hit the Island between about 9.30 and 11 am and was making its way across the south coast of England.John Searson, senior Met officer, said: ‘The highest gust we had was recorded at the Airport, at 65 mph.
The centre of the low is moving east and is still deepening, so places east of Jersey could expect some damage.
Tomorrow we will see another low coming in with perhaps some gale-force winds, but nothing quite as strong as today.’Mitch Couriard, St Helier’s honorary police officer who was co-ordinating response units this morning, said: ‘We have been out since early on and there have been some incidents of fallen branches and landslides, which we have dealt with.
Fortunately the tide has not been too bad.
We have seen spray and some rubble come over the wall, but it has been limited to the cycle and walk paths on Victoria Avenue.
If the tide had been another three or four feet higher then we could have had a bigger problem.
‘Otherwise, we appear to have escaped without much damage this time.’Due to the timing of the storms, there are no fast sailings to the UK to be delayed and with Emeraude in dry dock and Condor not resuming services to France until Friday, all other sailings were on schedule this morning.Assistant Harbourmaster Peter Moore said: ‘The Commodore Clipper has left Portsmouth and we are expecting passengers and freight to arrive at about 7.30 pm.
The Goodwill has already left loaded with freight.’We are seeing swells of up to about 18 feet and winds up to Force 7.
The storm gates are closed at the marina and anyone intending to sail today should not.
Once the storm has passed people should check their own vessels for damage or flooding at the earliest opportunity.’
