Dawlish News

Residents in a Devon town have spoken of how they were evacuated from their crumbling homes after waves destroyed coastal defences as fearsome storms sweeped in from the Atlantic.

Now another band of heavy rain is forecast to sweep across southern Britain today, with a separate area of low pressure bringing more rain and very strong winds on Saturday.

Neil Jones and his son Issac were among the 50 people who were told to leave their homes next to the Dawlish railway lines which were left hanging in the air.

He said: 'It was like living in a washing machine. We have been left with the clothes on our backs. I never thought that wall would go.'

He said 'it was already scary' two hours before high tide smashed through the railway sea wall and by 10.30pm the 'railway line was like a roller coaster because the water had got under the line'.