HUNDREDS of homes were left without power and a supermarket car park was thrown into chaos as Storm Henk battered north Essex.
High winds and heavy rain brought on power cuts, transport troubles, property damage and disruption on Tuesday.
An amber warning for wind issued by the Met Office covered a central swathe of England, informing the public of possible travel disruption, roof damage and power cuts across Essex.
Widespread power cuts also affected the county with many homes losing power overnight and into Wednesday afternoon.
Homes in Kelvedon, Dedham, Mile End, Boxted, Langham, Nayland, and Great Horkesley were all affected by outages, UK Power Networks said.
A power cut hit the CO6 3 postcode area, including homes in Aldham, Eight Ash Green, West Bergholt, Fordham, and Wormingford, at 7.52pm on Tuesday. All homes in the area regained power by just before 2.30pm on Wednesday.
Storm Henk also disrupted commuters, with Essex train operator Greater Anglia reporting delays on many of its services, including the Stansted Express.
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Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said its control room received 110 calls relating to the storm in seven hours.
Heavy winds also caused chaos with trees and even a supermarket trolley shelter coming loose.
Colchester resident Richard Sage spotted a fallen tree over the River Colne while walking along North Station Road, Colchester.
A fallen tree on a business park in Colchester blocked access to Flood Lane, a busy cut-through used by workers on the Severalls Industrial Estate.
A trolley shelter at the Asda supermarket in Colchester was blown over by strong winds at about 6.30pm on Tuesday.
A shopper said the shelter’s “legs were lifting in the wind” when they arrived at the shop at about 6.15pm.
They said: “A couple of staff were monitoring it there. One of the back legs was lifting up six to seven inches at time in the wind.”
The witness added that supermarket staff made an announcement to alert click and collect customers of a potential issue.
Ten minutes later, when they left the store, they saw the shelter already fully tipped over.
Asda was approached for comment.
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