Winds of 100mph battered the south coast today as the UK experienced its worst storm this year.
Gale force conditions and torrential rain swept east across the country leaving a trail of damaged property and flooded communities.
Winds hit 100 mph at the Needles on the Isle of Wight and were unusually strong inland, bringing down trees and tearing off roofs.
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The Environment Agency were forced to issue flood warnings as heavy rain left people stranded in their cars on water logged roads.
Wales, southern and eastern England were the worst hit, with emergency call outs starting late on Friday and continuing throughout Saturday.
In Haywards Heath, West Sussex, people had to be rescued from four units on an industrial estate after floodwaters rose to two feet.
In Dorset, five people, including a pregnant woman and two small children, had to flee their car when it was suddenly enveloped by water at Whitchurch Canonicorum, near Bridport.
Fire crews in Essex, Devon, Somerset and Bournemouth were called out by reports of roofs being blown off properties and power lines downed by the gales.
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Three oil rig workers were rescued by a lifeboat crew after their supply boat was forced aground by rough seas at Britain’s most easterly point.
Lifeboatmen said the vessel was washed on to a jetty at Ness Point, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, late last night as 45mph winds hit the east coast.
A spokesman for the Lowestoft lifeboat crew said the men were unhurt but their boat was destroyed.
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He said: “We were up to gale force out here. There were gusts of 45mph. It was rough.
“They’d been heading into Lowestoft to pick something up when they got into trouble.”
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The choppy waters disrupted channel crossings, with the port of Dover closing in the afternoon and Brittany Ferries cancelling sailings from Plymouth to Roscoff and Poole to Cherbourg because of the severe weather.
Train passengers faced delays and cancellations after the heavy rain caused rocks to slide on to rail tracks, closing a busy line in the Chepstow area of south east Wales. Services running between Newport and Gloucester were affected, along with cross-country trains between Nottingham and Cardiff.
One bright point amid the grey, stormy weather was the Lord Mayor’s show in London, which went ahead as planned despite the downpour.
The show has only been cancelled once in history, for the Duke of Wellington’s funeral in 1852 and this year’s ceremony was seen as an important morale boost for the Square Mile.
Nick Anstee, the 682nd Lord Mayor of London, oversaw events including a display of the city’s finest young running talent.
Sadly the annual fireworks display at the end of the show had to be abandoned, for the first time 20 years, because of the high winds.
A spokesman for the port authority said: “There are high winds in London already and they are forecast to get worse in terms of wind speed.”
The storm conditions are set to subside tomorrow but forecasters are warning the wind and rain will return next week.
Stephen Davenport of MeteoGroup UK, said: “This is the strongest storm we have had this year but it is just an autumnal storm, not untypical for this time of year.”