STORM Ciarán, which started to touch down in the West Somerset area on Wednesday, was expected to cause some disruption with its strong winds and heavy rain through to Friday (November 3).

Some rural schools were closed, roads flooded, and train services cancelled ahead of the worst of the storm.

Both Dulverton Junior School and All Saints Infants School were shut on Thursday for the safety of pupils and staff, and the Buffer Stop Shop, at Minehead Station, also closed amid storm fears.

All but essential construction works were paused at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station site due to the weather conditions and workers were being taken off the site by the company's bus fleet.

Office-based staff continued working as normal and the plan was for the nightshift on Thursday to continue as scheduled.

A Hinkley spokesperson said: "We will continue to monitor the situation closely."

A flood warning by the Environment Agency was late on Thursday downgraded to an 'alert' for the coastline between Gore Point and Hurlstone Point, including properties on the lock side and businesses around the harbourmaster’s office, Gibraltar Cottages, and other low lying properties on the B3225 at Porlock Weir.

The agency had said residents should take action to protect themselves and their property and monitor local weather and river conditions.

It said people should avoid contact with, walking, or driving, through flood water, and consider activating any property flood protection products they might have, but later decided the risk of flooding was now low.

The agency also issued a flood alert in the Minehead, Dunster, Blue Anchor, and Washford areas because of rising river levels on the Horner Water, River Aller, Washford River, Hawkcombe Stream, Monksilver Stream, and Doniford Stream.

It said the areas most at risk included the Horner Water, Rivers Aller and Washford, and the Hawkcombe, Monksilver, and Doniford Streams and tributaries., where flooding is possible during Thursday.

A spokesperson said: "Further rainfall is forecast this afternoon. River levels are rising. We are checking weed screens in the area.

"Our incident rooms are open and we are monitoring rainfall and river levels closely.

"We are aware that some river level telemetry data are not appearing or being updated on the gov.uk website. We are sorry about this, and are working hard to resolve this as soon as possible."

The agency also highlighted a flood risk along the Upper River Exe from Exford to Exebridge, the Rivers Barle, Lyn, Mole, and Bray and their tributaries.

It said heavy rain falling due to Storm Ciaran was also causing the River Exe to start rising, meaning flooding to low lying land and roads close to local rivers was possible covering Middle River Exe from Exebridge to Tiverton and the Rivers Haddeo, Batherm, and Lowman.

Parts of the A358 and A39 main roads had minor flooding but were passable with care, while a number of minor roads were under water in places, and a Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue (DSFR) spokesperson advised motorists to ‘please take care on the roads’.

Great Western Railways and CrossCountry cancelled train services between Taunton and Exeter, while Buses of Somerset cancelled some of its No 28 buses between Taunton and Minehead.

More than 30 trees were known to have been brought down overnight Wednesday into Thursday and Travel Somerset said it had 20 crews of tree surgeons on standby ready to deal with potentially unsafe road conditions.

Somerset Council said its highways teams attended more than 100 incidents in the space of about 12 hours overnight, mostly for flooding and fallen trees.

The council said although there were a number of reports of floodwater outside of properties, very few buildings were actually inundated and staff were sent to jet gullies and clear debris with the focus on sites where properties were most at risk of flooding.

Most waste collections were made on Thursday morning with only a small number of areas where localised flooding prevented the crews getting through, and those were going to be returned for as soon as access was possible.

All nine of the council's recycling sites were open as planned.

Separately, Wiveliscombe firefighters dealt with a chimney fire in Langley Marsh on Wednesday afternoon.

The fire crew used chimney gear to put it out and gave advice to the homeowners after determining the cause was accidental.

DSFR said it attended more than 10 chimney fires a week during winter time, most of which were caused by dirty chimneys becoming filled with tar, which was ‘extremely flammable’.

The brigade said the build up of flammable tar could be prevented by having chimneys swept regularly.