A ‘PERFECT storm’ of wind, rain, and tide combined to bring coastal flooding to West Somerset this week with holidaymakers forced to evacuate their caravans and the Steam Coast Trail left unusable.

The Met Office issued a yellow weather warning for winds of more than 70mph as Storm Kathleen swept across parts of the UK, resulting in some of the Bristol Channel’s highest tides of the year being driven even higher onto the coast, while torrential rain swelled rivers and saturated fields.

Blue Anchor and Dunster were at the West Somerset epicentre with fields turned into boating lakes at the Hoburne and Home Farm caravan parks and the £630,000 cycling and walking trail suffering the worst damage since it was built.

The storm also battered the coastline and harbour in Watchet but this time the town escaped any major flooding and the Star Inn, which had previously suffered badly, was able to stay open because flood gates did their job.

Several feet of shingle and rocks covered the steam trail between Dunster Beach and Blue Anchor just days after it had been restored following an earlier storm, trees were brought down, and land behind known Ker Moor flooded.

Holidaymakers in a touring field on the Hoburne Blue Anchor site were evacuated as their cars and caravans were almost submerged.

A Hoburne spokesperson said a ‘small number’ of people had been affected who were each offered a choice of a refund or a return visit.

A spokeswoman for Somerset Leisure, which owns Home Farm, just 100 yards from the beach, said only the empty ‘front field’ had flooded and guests in the ‘back field’ were not affected.

She said: “We have had it bad in the past few years but we were lucky this time. All our hardstandings were above the water line.”

Carhampton Parish Council chairman Cllr Brenda Maitland-Walker said: “We were shocked that such devastation occurred and want to keep the trail for as long as possible, but if the shingle ridge has gone, the next storm will probably do the same again and the land at Ker Moor will suffer from breaches more and more often.”

Parish Cllr Tim Taylor said: “The shingle ridge has been pushed up to 20 yards inland and no longer provides protection between the path and the sea.

“If these conditions continue, there could be serious problems for the trail in the future.”

Christopher Sully, director of GA Sully and Sons, of Dunster, which carried out the earlier path repairs, said: “When I went to see the latest damage it was the worst we have ever had to deal with.

“Big trees were uprooted and shingle and big stones piled high on a long length of path.

“Shingle has poured into neighbouring fields, something I have never seen before.

“We will rebuild the shingle ridge on the seaward side of the trail and hope it will provide some protection.

“At the moment this stretch of the path is completely open to the sea.”