A RACE was called off, walls blew down and scaffolding crushed a car as Storm Angus battered the coast.

On Saturday night Lewes experienced one third as much rain in a single hour as it would normally receive in the whole of November.

Overnight winds also hindered firefighters' efforts to extinguish a major fire in a building on Bognor seafront.

The Brooks Brighton 10k race was due to start at 9.30am but 90 minutes beforehand organisers called off the event having been warned weather conditions were too severe.

Organisers said: “Due to the strong winds meaning that we could not close the roads along the seafront, we were advised the 10k race could not go ahead - we are very sorry to have to make this announcement but feel it is safer for all and we had no option. “

Most runners seemed to take the news in their stride but several vented their frustration at the last-minute decision.

Nick Stamford replied: “Extremely disappointed is an understatement. Like many others we travelled down yesterday and were looking for guidance from 'experts' who knew the area and conditions and it looks like you've failed on both counts”

John Street was closed off for several hours after high winds of up to 80mph dislodged roofing tiles from the police station.

Fire crews from East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service were unable to make the site safe due to the winds so closed off the road, but no significant damage was visible later in the day once the road reopened.

In a twitten off Cliff Road in Roedean, an eight-foot high wall along the edge of a garden had to be demolished by fire crews after part of it crumbled and the remainder was so weakened it presented a risk to the public.

Young Addison Read, who lives with his mother Hannah opposite, was surprised when he discovered the damage.

Addison, 7, told The Argus: “It was so noisy last night I had to put my head under the pillow to sleep - I couldn’t sleep it was so windy.”

“Then when we were walking to Laser Tag this morning we saw the wall had all fallen down.

His mother Hannah explained: “I heard a loud bang in the middle of the night, it was so loud I thought for a minute it was right against my window. But nothing was broken.

“Then this morning as we walked past I saw it, the wall was completely shattered.”

Fire crews from the neighbouring station noticed the damaged and, on testing the remaining section of the wall and finding it moved under pressure, took the decision to demolish it safely to remove any risk to the public.

Watch manager Darren Sampson said: “It was about eight foot tall but clearly unsafe so we pushed it into the pathway then cleared up.”

Elsewhere, fire and police crews dealt with fallen trees and flood-damaged buildings where dislodged roof tiles had let the lashing rain inside.

Yellow and amber storm warnings remain in place over Southwest England but the weather in Brighton is set to return to wintery normality from today.

STORM ANGUS HITS HOME WITH A VENGEANCE

ANGUS – the first named storm of the season – left destruction in its wake after blowing into town on Saturday night.

The biggest effect of the gale force winds and pelting rain was felt by firefighters tackling a blaze in Bognor which had started in the early hours of the morning.

Fourteen fire engines were sent to tackle the blaze centred on the Beach restaurant on the Esplanade, and 30 residents from upper floor flats were evacuated as crews struggled against the elements to bring the fire under control.

A gas supply was alight and keeping the flames going, according to police, although it was not a question of a gas mains explosion.

When emergency services arrived just after 4am, weather conditions were so bad they reported it being difficult to stand. The fire was brought under control by mid-morning and one person was treated for smoke inhalation but no other injuries were reported.

Elsewhere in the county, as day broke residents awoke to see their bins blown into the street, and leaves and branches blown everywhere.

By 9am John Street in Brighton was blocked off because fire crews could not make safe the area overnight when high winds caused roof tiles from the police station to fall into the street.

A police spokeswoman said: “We have got a lot of damage everywhere in Sussex with trees down.”

In St Leonards, a TV aerial was dislodged and blown against a chimney where it threatened to fall to the street, potentially injuring passers-by. Fire crews climbed up to make the roof safe at 9am.

Willingdon Primary School in Eastbourne saw crews arrive at 9.17am because large sections of its tin roof had been dislodged by the storm. Fortunately there was no risk to the public.

A small retail park in Bexhill had to close for the day because whole areas of its roofing over had come loose. The Boots and Halfords at the Ravenside Centre closed their doors, according to a spokeswoman for East Sussex Fire and Rescue, “because it was the safest thing to do”.

And in Hove, fire crews were called to an address in St Aubyn’s Road after reports that buffeting winds had blown roof tiles free. Upon investigation they found that the missing tiles had let rainwater pour into the building, affecting its electrics. No one was hurt.

Lauren Hornsbury said her flat in Bylands, Danehill Road, Brighton suffered.

Lauren, who has six-week-old twins and a two-and-a-half-year-old, said: “It was coming in through the living room wall.

“The council told me to just mop it up with towels and said if it starts dripping on the sockets they’d have to turn my electrics off. But I can’t survive without electricity with three kids. “I’m really worried the damp will affect the kids’ health.”

Lynne Fowler’s home in Wenthill Gardens, Eastbourne, flooded for the third time this month.

She said: “I’ve been flooded 28 times now. There is a collapsed drain outside and every time it rains it floods my house.

“There were two inches of water under the floor boards.

“I first started noticing it coming in late on Saturday night and then it just kept going through the night. “It’s not come over the floorboards and you can’t tell it’s there.”

The intrepid members of Tide Mills Conservation Society still braved the morning’s squalls, heading out and collecting several bags of rubbish from the estuary they work hard to keep clean and tidy every month.