The Island was battered by Storm Bert over the weekend, with fallen trees and masonry blocking roads and local flooding.

Island Roads were kept busy throughout the weekend, with more than 20 call-outs to keep the highways open. Whitwell Road was flooded, as were a number of footpaths and cycle tracks.

Nancy Finan was driving along Bedbury Lane, in Freshwater Bay, on Saturday night when she found her car was blocked by a fallen tree. She said: “It was so dark I nearly hit it! I phoned 101 straight away and, thankfully, they were very helpful.”

Trees fell elsewhere across the Island with reports from East Cowes, Newport, Whitwell, Ryde, Arreton and Shalfleet, while members of the public joined forces to remove a tree on Rectory Lane, Gatcombe.

Meanwhile, masonry fell away from a building above the former Favian barbers, on Pyle Street in Newport on Saturday, narrowly missing shoppers.

Police closed the road and erected a cordon around the site, keeping the road closed until the exterior building façade was secured.

After Storm Bert, Storm Conal quickly followed with heavy rain overnight on Tuesday bringing more misery and flooding.

Floodwater several homes on Gunville Road at the junction with Ash Lane, following flooding from a nearby river which also burst its banks, damaging the same homes during Storm Babet last year. Some families have been offered temporary accommodation.

The Environment Agency issue three flood alerts for the Eastern Yar, River Medina and Gurnard Lock, and a severe flood warning for Whitwell, Wroxall, Langbridge and Alverstone.

Several key roads across the Island were also temporarily closed, while flooding on the Island Line network blocked railway lines and also disrupted train services.

Meanwhile, electricity engineers were also called to outages in Ryde, East Cowes and Apse Heath on Wednesday morning.

The Environment Agency later confirmed that 45mm of rain fell across the Island, almost half of November’s average rainfall, in 24 hours.