Stories from yesterday's county-wide battering were still emerging today.

One couple were making breakfast when winds gusting up to 80 miles an hour blew their boat over on to their car.

John MacKinnon, 38 and his partner Debbie, 37, were on board their 25ft boat, the Peripatetic Plymothian, which was in a cradle in Sussex Yacht Club in Shoreham.

Mr MacKinnon said: "Debbie was making breakfast and I had just returned to the boat and had just checked the windspeed, which was 60 knots.

Debbie said: "Just then the boat slowly keeled over on to our car, which is now a mess. Cups, plates and kettles just went and smashed up - everything just fell out."

Club secretary Alan Rudkin said four boats had been damaged by the high winds, which swept through between 5am and 6am.

A wall of water wrecked a bus shelter and blasted a man into the road as gales and rain lashed the clifftop in Saltdean.

Cherryl Jenkin was left with bruises and her friend Karen Grimshaw with a deep gash on her hand when the glass wall shattered under the weight of the water.

Cherryl, 40, said the deluge must have been a freak wave lashing up from the sea over one hundred feet away.

She said: "I was absolutely terrified. It was wet and windy, with lots of spray, but this white mass of water was just incredible.

"It all happened in a split second but it seemed like slow motion at the same time.

"I could see the glass shooting past me and the guy at the bus stop rolling away on the floor.

"I stopped to help him up, then we just ran away from it like scared rabbits."

Storm damage has forced the closure of the £87 million Millennium Seed Bank exhibition only a few months after it opened.

Strong winds blew in large windows at the public exhibition area causing an estimated £80,000 worth of damage.

Organisers hope to have the centre at Wakehurst Place at Ardingly open later this week.

At the height of the storm 25,000 Sussex homes lost power but Seeboard engineers worked non-stop and today only about 700 homes remained without electricity.

Newick, Steyning, Horsham and West Hoathly were worst hit but Seeboard hoped most homes there would have power restored by the end of today.

The RSPCA rescued horses, cattle and sheep from flooded fields in Sussex, particularly in the Pulborough area.

In Medway Drive, Forest Row, youngsters rescued six chickens from a flooded allotment.

The RSPCA helped rescue 100 cattle stuck in a flooded field in Lewes and used a boat to rescue 25 sheep in a field near Ansty, Haywards Heath.

At Polegate, a bullock was stranded in a field with rising water and an inspector helped move it to higher ground.

Train services in Sussex are still subject to delays because of speed restrictions.

Thameslink has an emergency timetable in place until the end of the week which a spokesman said may have to be continued for the "foreseeable future."

Its routes between Brighton and London terminate at Blackfriars and City Thameslink.

Connex is not running the Brighton Express service after 10am today.

Several primary schools across Sussex remained closed today for repairs to be carried out.

St Peter's Infant School, Portslade, is shut for safety reasons after roof tiles were blown off in the storms.

In East Sussex, Ditchling, Alfriston, Bourne, Redlake and Blackboys primary schools will not be opening and more could inform the council during the day.

East Sussex survived a second night of high winds relatively unscathed.

Environment Agency staff were out in force checking rivers for blockages and shoring up defences, with more heavy rain forecast for Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Flood warning team leader David Bonner said: "Because the Downs are so saturated any further rain will run into the rivers fairly quickly.

"We are still on a high state of alert and will be monitoring the situation very closely with patrols checking the rivers constantly."

Firefighters were still at Pulborough and the nearby village of Hardham today, pumping water away from the A259 London Road, which was flooded after the River Arun burst its banks.

But there were no more reports of damage or flooding at Bognor and Selsey, which were hit by freak tornadoes in the space of 48 hours.