A nurse and her son cheated death when a felled branch ripped through their car as they drove home in ferocious weather.

Lesley Motherdale, 44, said it was a miracle they were not killed in the freak accident at 11pm last night which wrote off her Honda Prelude.

She had been driving her student son James, 22, and his girlfriend Sienna Pallet, 19, back to Worthing when the heavy branch pierced the car in Bostal Road, Steyning.

It smashed through the car windscreen, narrowly missing Lesley's head, and ended up between her son's legs in the front passenger footwell.

Lesley, of Highland Croft, Steyning, said: "I was driving very slowly because I had just turned into the road when I heard an almighty noise and the roof started carving in on my head.

"It pierced the windscreen and went straight through the car.

"My son was in the passenger seat and it lodged between his feet. It could have been a small tree it was so big but I think it was a branch from a beech tree."

Recalling the impact, she said: "I honestly thought my time was up.

"I did not brake. The branch literally squashed the car as we drove under it. It was dark and you could not see something crashing down.

"The first thing we knew, it was coming through the windscreen.

"Some of the branch landed on James' leg and bruised it - it could have gone through his leg or chest."

Once the car had ground to a halt, she told James, who is studying at Northbrook College, and Sienna to get out of the car.

Lesley, who works at Goring Hall Hospital, Worthing, said: "The car was stopped dead and the first thing I said was: 'Is everybody all right?'

"When we got put of the car we moved away from the road because there might have been more coming.

"As we stepped out, there were cracks and snaps from the trees above."

Kerry Relf, of the Royal Navy, which is helping keep the fire service running during the current strikes, said they are preparing for more incidents involving bad weather.

Gales battered Sussex last night, felling trees and knocking out power supplies.

The Environment Agency issued two flood warnings in the county.

The River Ouse between Isfield and Barcombe and the River Cuckmere at Hellingly were both feared to be close to overflowing.

Spokeswoman Jo Hunt said some areas had suffered 30mm of rainfall over the past 24 hours.

A fallen tree blocked the Upper Drive, Hove, another the inside lane on the A24 in Findon.

Seventy houses in Upper Beeding lost power when an overhead cable was damaged at 7am today.

The ferry service from Newhaven to Dieppe at 8am was cancelled due to winds of up to 50 knots.