Storm Ciaran forces school closures and brings travel chaos after 100mph winds

One homeowner in Jersey said she saw hailstones ‘bigger than a golf ball’ overnight.

Cars pass a fallen tree in Dover, Kent, as Storm Ciaran brings high winds and heavy rain along the south coast of England (Gareth Fuller/PA) (PA Wire)

Gusts of more than 100mph have left thousands of homes without power, forced school closures and caused travel chaos after Storm Ciaran battered the south of England and the Channel Islands.

Damage to properties on Jersey meant some 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.

In the south of England, hundreds of schools closed because of the risk to pupils but 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.”

The Met Office dialled back their wind warnings later on Thursday morning, with one amber warning, the second most severe, remaining in place for the south of England until 12pm.

Flooding is expected in 77 areas, according to the Environment Agency, most of which are on the south coast of England.

A further 188 alerts are in place for possible flooding across England.

P&O Ferries said tourist traffic was being sent away from the Port of Dover as severe weather conditions closed the port.

Southern Rail urged commuters to work from home if possible and avoid non-essential journeys due to a strong risk of falling trees and debris blowing on to the tracks.

Cornwall Council said nearly 10,000 homes in the county had been without power because of the storm, adding that strong winds and large waves would make coastlines particularly dangerous.

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 its highways teams dealing with about 180 reports of fallen trees, debris and blocked drains.

He said: “The two biggest challenges have been outages and debris causing road blockage – and at one point there were over 10,000 properties that were out of power and now, as it approached lunchtime, we are down to about 6,500.

“We are working with National Grid to help some vulnerable residents who might be impacted as it is forecast that some of them will not have their power restored until the morning.”

He added: “For people in their homes, particularly those who had lost power, it would have been a fairly traumatic experience.”

States of Jersey Police said 35 people were moved to hotel accommodation overnight, with three taken to hospital after damage to their homes.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, police said four further people had been moved to other accommodation and Jersey Fire and Rescue Service said gusts had reached up to 104mph.

One Jersey homeowner, Suzie Phillips, told the PA news agency: “The hailstones were quite a bit heavier and bigger than a golf ball and we’ve had three windows damaged by them – in my daughter’s bedroom, a landing and a bathroom.

“It was quite worrying, especially for the kids – they were quite anxious about it.”

Roofs blowing off buildings, power lines and trees falling down onto roads, and bridges and railway line closures are all possible due to the storm, the Met Office added.

The Met Office said Jersey Airport had seen wind gusts of up to 93mph on Thursday morning, with Langdon Bay in Kent recording 71mph winds, and the village of Cardinham in Cornwall seeing 68mph gusts.

The French coast saw winds of up to 110mph in western Brittany overnight.

All flights from Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney airports on Thursday have been cancelled.

The major incident was declared by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum, with the local fire service warning there was a “potential risk to life” as well as a risk of damage to buildings, falling trees and flooding.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) urged people watching the conditions to stay away from the coast.

A yellow warning for rain is also in place from 6am on Thursday to 6am on Friday for north-east England and Scotland, stretching up to Inverness.

Charity Age UK said older people living alone, with dementia, or who are seriously unwell need “extra support”, with director Caroline Abrahams saying: “We need to do more in advance and when disasters hit to safeguard older people.”

Two buses were damaged by debris in strong winds in Capel-le-Ferne, Kent, causing disruption to services in the area.

A Stagecoach spokesman said: “There are no reports of any injuries to passengers travelling on the buses.”