THOUSANDS of homes and businesses from one end of West Somerset to the other were without power for nearly 36 hours, shops closed, buses stopped, and events and activities were cancelled as the worst storm for a generation swept across the area at the weekend.

Hundreds of properties on Exmoor in the Porlock and Dulverton areas, and around Watchet, were still without power on Monday (December 9) in the aftermath of Storm Darragh.

The storm brought winds of 80 to 90mph barrelling along the Exmoor and West Somerset coastline as the Met Office issued a rare red weather alert signalling danger to life and warning people to stay indoors.

Butlin’s holiday resort in Minehead was forced to close on Sunday because of extensive damage, although it hoped to open for guests arriving on Monday afternoon.

Minehead’s sea front roads were turned into a landscape of desert dunes as thousands of tonnes of sand was washed and blown over the sea wall.

Also closed for the weekend was Tropiquaria Zoo, at Washford Cross, where local residents helped director Chris Moiser and staff repair damage and move animals to safer enclosures.

There was heartache for the organisers of Dunster Winter Festival who had spent all year working to put together a weekend of events to replace Dunster by Candlelight.

Nearly all the Dunster activities were cancelled, and even the village Christmas tree was brought down by the storm.

Minehead and Williton public libraries closed on Saturday, the No 25 First Bus service to Dulverton could not reach the town, and on Sunday a number of church services were cancelled, including in Luccome and Porlock Weir.

Throughout, district nurses continued working to reach vulnerable patients and emergency services were called to hundreds of incidents where trees were brought down and blocked roads.

The A39, A396, and A358 were all affected and hardly a village across the area was spared as tree surgeons saw one of their busiest days for many years.

Electricity sub-stations were hit and power cables were brought down in many communities while National Grid said thousands of engineers worked round the clock to carry out repairs.

Avon and Somerset Police received more than 100 calls for help in West Somerset alone, and the force was critical of dozens of people who put themselves at risk by driving or walking in the storm to ‘pop to the pub for a bit of food’.

A spokesperson said officers were ‘continually having to turn members of the public around’, none of whom experienced powers cuts but just thought ‘it would be nice to get a pub meal’.

The spokesperson said: “Officers across West Somerset dealt with countless hazards, including fallen trees, large parts of roofs blowing around in public areas, broken power cables all over the road, road traffic collisions, and more.”

A police officer had a near miss as they swerved to avoid a falling tree, while one woman driver had an even luckier escape as a tree fell on her car but she escaped with only minor injuries.