Nearly one year after the Birmingham tornado devastated their homes, some residents are still waiting to move back, as Shahid Naqvi reports...
Eleven months on, this is a street still in the shadow of the devastating tornado that ripped through Birmingham last summer.
Looking more like a building site than a place where families once lived, every one of the 11 houses in the row of terraces remains uninhabitable.
Inside, bare brick walls, newly-replaced wooden beams, empty window frames and concrete, dust-covered floors expose the guts of the dwellings.
Outside, once-lovingly tended gardens raked by vicious winds topping 135mph are now bare earth where construction vehicles and delivery trucks unload building materials.
The first residents of the reconstructed row of houses in Alder Road, Balsall Heath, are finally due to return from temporary accommodation in two weeks.
Some, however, will not be back until August - more than a year after the tornado ripped across a swathe of south Birmingham on July 28 last year.
All but one of the 11 homes numbered between 11 and 31 belong to the Moseley Churches Housing Association.
David Cusack, chief executive of the organisation which provides affordable housing to inner-city areas, said: "The works on Alder Road are coming to a conclusion.
"We haven't got actual handover dates at the moment simply because we had a problem with the back gardens.
"There is a retaining wall and there is some structural damage that we discovered fairly early on.
"For residents' safety we need to get that sorted before they can move back in. The plan is the handover will be in stages."
Mr Cusack, who was working in Birmingham City Council's emergency planning department when the tornado hit the city, added: "It has taken longer than anticipated but that is because we have taken the opportunity to modernise the homes with the residents' approval.
"They will go back into much better homes."
The tornado caused an estimated #25 million worth of damage to homes and businesses in Kings Heath, Moseley, Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath.
Cars were up-turned and trees whipped out of the ground. Miraculously, however, no one was killed, though 19 people were injured.
Graham Timms, aged 66, returned to his home on Alder Road two weeks ago after months living in rented accommodation while repair work was completed.
He clearly remembers the terrible moment the tornado struck.
"I was watching TV at the time. It just went all dark and the wind started up. I ran upstairs to see what had happened and all my windows and my roof had gone. It was frightening. I hope I never see that again."
In the immediate aftermath of the tornado, it emerged some owners of the 1,000 damaged properties had not insured their homes, raising questions over how repair costs would be met.
A Tornado Hardship Fund set up to help victims raised #20,000 made up of donations f rom the public and organisations.
Mr Cusack stressed the priority now was to get the remaining families back into their homes as soon as possible. "It would be fair to say residents are keen to get back and rebuild their lives properly because they have been in no man's land for the best part of a year."
