Storms continue to batter the South West

Heavy rain and gale-force winds continue to batter Devon.

Severe amber warnings for wind and rain have been issued by the Met Office with exposed areas of coast set to be the worst affected.

Several homes and business in Exmouth have again been damaged by the storms for the second time in the recent round of storms.

There were also reports of snow on both Dartmoor and Exmoor earlier today further adding to difficult driving conditions in the area.

Strong winds reaching up to 80mph in some areas are expected to hit Devon from 6pm and remain until the early hours of the morning.

The Met Office’s Chief Forecaster said; “Another storm runs northeastwards across western and northern parts of the UK during Friday and into Saturday, before clearing to the northeast.

“Around the southern flank of this storm very strong southerly or southwesterly winds are expected to develop, primarily affecting southern and southeastern counties of England.

“There remains some uncertainty in the track and timings of this system but gusts of 60-70 mph are possible with perhaps 80 mph along the most exposed parts of the south coast.

“With these strong winds some large waves are also likely along the south coast and there is the potential for some coastal flooding where this coincides with high tides.

The heavy rain has seen several roads around Devon badly affected by flood water causing wide spread delays to travel.

The A375 Putts Corner is closed at the Seaton Road junction, because of flooding.

A376 Exmouth Road in Clyst St George closed and queueing traffic between the B3179 junction and the A3052 junction, because of flooding.

Wreford's Lane in Exeter blocked near the West Garth Road junction, because of a fallen tree.

The A35 road is just passable but driving conditions are hazardous and traffic is slow between the A30 junction at Honiton and the B3261 junction at Axminster.

One lane closed and very slow traffic on M5 northbound between J27 (Tiverton) and J26 Wellington, because of an accident.

Driving conditions are hazardous due to snow on the B3212 Two Bridges Road, Princetown around the B3357 Tavistock Road junction.

The inside lane of the A38 near Ashburton is flooded which has caused delays on the main route to Plymouth.

Today’s poor weather has also seen speed restrictions imposed on the rail route between Newton Abbot and Penzance, and also on the Barnstaple and Exmouth branch lines extending journey’s by up to 30 minutes.

Due to periods of heavy rain and high winds trains have been cancelled between Salisbury and Exeter St Davids, a two hourly replacement train shuttle service is now in affect.

Engineering work is taking place on some parts of the First Great Western network after the storm earlier this week affecting some late night services.

A spokesman for Network Rail said  yesterday: “Immense efforts by hundreds of rail engineers overnight have seen scores of tress removed from blocked lines, over a dozen dewirements repaired and hundreds of pieces of debris cleared of the track across Wales and the north of England.”

Work continues on the repairs at Dawlish where storms last week destroyed 80m of Seawall and a large portion of rail track.

The senior police officer in charge of the evacuation of Dawlish residents during the unprecedented storm last week has praised the emergency services and other agencies for their speedy response.

Chief Superintendent Paul Davies, Devon Commander, was in charge of co-ordinating the multi-agency response to the adverse weather experienced across the county.

Chief Supt Davies said: “I was most impressed by the response of all agencies and local residents in Dawlish. It was a real team effort and all agencies worked extremely well together to ensure an effective response.

“The co-operation of the residents was excellent on the night and, without doubt, saved anyone from being injured. Clearly many of them will be impacted by this incident for a long time.”

Plans for the Lightstream event for the opening of Animated Exeter has been cancelled tonight in light of the severe weather warnings.