Council thanks public after storm

West Sussex County Council has thanked members of the public who reported emergency incidents during Storm Eunice.

The storm arrived in West Sussex last Friday morning (February 18), with the Met Office issuing a red weather warning.

Teams across West Sussex County Council worked together with emergency planning partners to prepare the authority’s response and workers were deployed throughout the weekend to support communities.

Up to 6pm on the Friday alone, the county council’s highways team received 554 calls about emergency incidents, compared to an average of about 80 on a normal day.

Calls after this time were managed by the council’s outof-hours service.

By the end of the day on Monday, the team had responded to 388 emergency incidents, the majority of which related to the clearing of trees that had fallen down or been damaged by the winds.

West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service responded to numerous 999 calls from across the county throughout the day and into the weekend, with Joint Fire Control receiving almost 600 calls between 8am and 5.30pm on Friday across Sussexand Surrey.

Council leader Paul Marshall said: “Thank you also to everyone across West Sussex for your responsible actions to protect yourselves and others, whether it was calling in emergency incidents, changing your plans in order to stay safe and out of the winds, or supporting others, especially the most vulnerable, in our communities.”