THE STORM THAT CUT OFF WEST FROM THE REST

IT is seven years to the day since parts of Britain were hit by the severe storm which smashed through the sea wall at Dawlish, leaving the main railway link between London and the South West hanging in the air.

The storm also forced scores of people from their homes and left thousands without power.

The most dramatic illustration of the strength of the storm – and the vulnerability of the main rail route between Cornwall and Plymouth and the rest of the country – was summed up in one image in which the lines dangle precariously over a boiling sea.

Elsewhere, the wind and heavy rain left residents on parts of the Somerset Levels forced to leave their homes, amid fears flood defences could be overwhelmed.

As the winds dropped and the waters subsided in the following days, the then Prime Minister David

Cameron chaired his first Cobra meeting of 2014 and announced an extra £100 million for flood works. At Prime Minister’s Questions that day, he pledged £75m for repairs over the next year, £10m for urgent work in Somerset – where several rivers had flooded – and £15m for maintenance.

Mr Cameron said he would “ensure that everything that can be done to get stricken communities moving is being done – there are no restrictions on help”.

The BBC’s political editor, Nick Robinson, said Mr Cameron had given the “clearest possible sign” that he needed to “be seen to be getting a grip” on the response to the floods.

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson’s handling of the crisis was widely criticised. He did not chair the Cobra emergency committee or give a statement to the House of Commons on

Thursday that week, after being diagnosed with a detached retina.

At the height of the storm, some 44,000 customers, most in the South West, were hit by power cuts.

By 10pm the following day, thousands of homes had been reconnected but 953 customers remained without power across the South West. In Cornwall, 490 were still cut off.

On the Somerset Levels, police used a helicopter to advise the occupants of more than 150 properties in Fordgate and Northmoor to leave their homes.

Yet more heavy rain and gales slammed into the region later that week.

Dawlish resident Robert Parker said the initial storm which severed the railway line was “like the end of the world”. He added: “It was like an earthquake. I’ve never experienced anything like it... last night was just a force of nature.”