HAMPSHIRE County Council had extra teams working into the night on Monday to keep the county moving – clearing roads of fallen trees and tackling flooding in the aftermath of St Jude's storm.

The worst storm to hit the south of England since 1987, the Alton area escaped relatively unscathed as gale force winds and heavy rain swept through in the early hours, uprooting trees, taking out electricity supplies, and causing chaos on the road and rail network.

Gusts in excess of 80mph were recorded near and just off the Hampshire coastline, exceeding 70mph further inland.

Mercifully half-term meant fewer people were wanting to travel on Monday morning.

In Alton there were trees and branches down.

A tree was blocking Church Street, just short of the Greenfields/Old Odiham Road junction and the A339 was partially blocked by a fallen tree at Beech.

Priority was given to clearing the 'A' roads.

The rural areas were equally battered, with overhead powerlines damaged leaving villages like Four Marks, Lasham Binsted, Kingsley and Selborne without power – some for more than 48 hours.

Southern Electric Power Distribution engineers struggled to repair and restore power to thousands of customers across the network.

On the railways, around 90 per cent of the SWT network reopened by midday on Monday, following frantic efforts to clear tracks obstructed by fallen branches and around 50 uprooted trees, one of them blocking the Alton to Farnham line.