'Everything very quickly went from calm to chaos in regards to the weather'
19:40, 13 Jan 2026
The manager of a nursing home in Cornwall has thanked the community for its support in the wake of Storm Goretti.
John Clemens, managing director, manager, and clinical matron of Benoni Nursing Home in St Just described those who helped them after losing power during the storm as “actual lifesavers”.
Storm Goretti brought severe winds and a rare red warning to Cornwall last Thursday (January 8), resulting in chaos across the county as schools closed, trees fell and thousands were left without electricity.
John said a contingency plan had been put in place at the nursing home ahead of the storm but they had not expected the severity of the weather and the chaos it would cause.
“We had contingency plans in place, expecting there to be mild disruption because we hadn’t been told differently at the time,” he told CornwallLive.
“But then we got the red severe weather alerts come up on our phones during the shift and by that point, we had already put plans in place.
“Everything very quickly went from calm to chaos in regards to the weather.
“There was very little time at all between there being just a little bit of a breeze to tiles coming off the roof.”
According to John, the nursing home lost power at around 6:20pm on Thursday and did not have it restored for 36 hours until they were given access to a generator.
He added that by Friday morning (January 9), they were “inundated” with offers of support from the community who provided clean bedding and linens, hot water bottles and access to kitchens for cooking meals.
“We were inundated with support that following morning, it was just a constant stream of people coming in from the community,” John said.
“The only thing we had was cold water and no means to heat it up or get heating at all so our neighbour across the road, helped us get a constant stream of water.
“Another neighbour let us use her personal kitchen for the day so at least we could prepare some hot food for the residents for lunch, so that was really good.
“Fortunately, by 1pm on Saturday, we had a generator hooked up and then we were in a much better situation.”
John described the support from the community as being “humbling”, adding that they were lucky to escape with only minimal physical damage to the building.
“It was really humbling to have so much support from the community and they are actual lifesavers I think,” John said.
“We’re looking after some of the most vulnerable people in our community and we were doing our best but there’s only so much we could do.
“The damage to the property was also minimal and I know sadly, that has not been the case for some other homes.
“As soon as we started getting offers of help from the community, I started sharing that with the council so it could help out nearby homes.”
While the building remains structurally sound, John said they are in the process of cataloguing any repairs needed which will take some time to complete.
“The damage is going to be an ongoing issue,” John said. “We have got significant works that need to be done and we’re in the process of cataloguing everything that needs to be worked on.
“The [storm] building is structurally safe, it has added further damage to our lift which was already pending renewal, so there's now a lot more repair work needed and we will need to look at ways to raise funds for that.
“Our main concern was keeping our residents safe and they are glad to benefit from the heat now.
“So, I just want to give my sincere thanks to everybody who supported us.”