Dozens of schools to close on Friday after tornadoes of Storm Ciarán - see list

02 November 2023 , 20:31

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Some children won't be back in their classrooms until Monday as Storm Ciarán batters the south of England and the Channel Islands with gusts of up to 110mph and heavy rain.

Hundreds of schools were shut on Thursday as a precaution, with the Met Office issuing a series of weather warnings, as gale force winds - among them three possible tornadoes - and torrential rains struck. And though Ciarán is expected to slow today, weather will remain unsettled and some communities have been left in pieces.

Damage to properties in Jersey meant some residents had to evacuate their homes and seek refuge in a hotel, with one woman saying hailstones "bigger than a golf ball" had broken her windows. A tornado also struck the island, with residents describing the "carnage" as the twister ripped through homes. Islanders have been advised to stay indoors tomorrow.

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Dozens of schools to close on Friday after tornadoes of Storm Ciarán - see list eiqrtidzqiktinv

A car drives along a flooded road in Romsey, southern England (AFP via Getty Images)

As a result, The Government of Jersey said all schools will close for a second day on Friday as they aim to get pupils back in classrooms on Monday. In a statement it said: "Schools set to remain closed tomorrow to help assess damage and reopen roads. Some non-urgent health appointments have been cancelled." Other areas impacted by school closures include Cornwall and Dorset.

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Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum (LRF) downgraded its major incident on Thursday afternoon as the area had not experienced the "full extent of the forecast weather". Assistant Chief Constable Paul Bartolomeo, LRF chairman, said: "While we have seen flooding of properties and roads, power outages and disruption to the highways networks caused by the wind and rain, we have thankfully not seen the full extent of the forecast weather, and we are now in a position to stand down the major incident response."

Trees are uprooted after winds reaching 100 mph tore through St Helier, Jersey (Getty Images)

A Met Office yellow weather warning for winds that were "strong and potentially disruptive winds" was in place until 5pm covering the South West, Wales, London, the South East and the East of England. A yellow weather warning for rain is also in place covering much of southern and western England and Wales until just before midnight. A total of 88 flood warnings remain in place across England, Wales and Scotland.

The Cornwall councillor in charge of environment and public protection, Martyn Alvey, said the storm had led to a "significant event" in the region that had left highways teams dealing with about 180 reports of fallen trees, debris and blocked drains. He said: "For people in their homes, particularly those who had lost power, it would have been a fairly traumatic experience."

Fire and rescue officers search for people in need of rescue from their holiday chalets at Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, Dorset (Getty Images)

St Helier-based Carl Walker, the chairman of Jersey's Consumer Council, said his family were woken by "marble-sized" hailstones at midnight, which he said had stuck together to create "golf ball-sized lumps of ice". He said: "We camped out in our living room downstairs with our children because it was just simply too noisy and too frightening to be upstairs in the bedrooms - tiles were lifting, debris was hitting the roof, windows were flexing. The noise of the wind was just incredible and quite frightening. It was like a scene from a disaster movie."

This list will be updated throughout the evening