Suffolk reels from Storm Henk weather after Babet and Ciaran

Hundreds of homes across the county, including in the Ipswich, Sudbury and Shotley areas, were left without power throughout the day after wind speeds reached almost 70mph on Tuesday.

UK Power Networks said about 100 homes in Hadleigh, 300 homes in and around Ipswich and another 300 homes in Shotley were without electricity at various points in the day.

The supplier had warned homeowners may not have their power restored until the afternoon or evening.

The high winds also brought down trees onto roads and pavements, with one even knocking down a lamppost in Sudbury.

The knocked-over lamppost in Sudbury (Image: Suffolk Highways)

Dramatically, a woman in Ipswich made a lucky escape after a huge tree in Nacton Road fell and crushed a car and the entrance to a driveway.

And the bauble Christmas tree outside the University of Suffolk on Ipswich Waterfront was brought down a few days earlier than expected after the gusts felled the structure and damaged it late on Tuesday.

The bauble Christmas tree toppled on Ipswich Waterfront (Image: Kie Humprhres)

Ipswich Borough Council has said it will assess the damage to the tree before deciding whether it will be repaired.

Suffolk Highways said it was called out to more than 100 fallen trees on Tuesday.

In Haverhill, the winds were so strong that a trampoline was flung from a garden into a residential road – hitting a car.

A trampoline in Parkway in Haverhill (Image: Melanie West)

The rain may have stopped after Suffolk experienced a deluge on Tuesday at the height of the storm, but there were many roads left impassable yesterday as standing water was not able to be cleared.

Drivers were forced to travel in precarious conditions as water flooded roads across the county.

Suffolk Highways said yesterday morning it had enforced a number of emergency road closures, including in Flowton, Lavenham, Needham Market and Beyton.

In Bury St Edmunds, the A143 Compiegne Way remained closed in both directions due to flooding.

Standing water between Mickfield and the A140 (Image: Charlotte Bond)

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service had a busy day yesterday as several people needed rescuing from their cars.

In Needham Market, a man was pulled from his vehicle after getting into difficulty in Coddenham Road.

Flooding in Needham Market (Image: Charlotte Bond)

And a woman was pulled from the River Gipping by the Boss Hall Road industrial estate in Ipswich just after 11pm on Tuesday.

An ambulance was called to the scene but the woman did not require hospital treatment.

For the second day in a row, Greater Anglia issued a 'do not travel' message to some of its passengers travelling on certain routes.

A fallen tree damaging the electric wire on the route between Ipswich and Norwich on Tuesday evening caused disruption for those travelling yesterday.

Henk was the third major storm to cause major issues in Suffolk in the last few months, following on from Babet in October and Ciarán in November.

A tree collapsed in Nacton Road, Ipswich (Image: Charlotte Bond)

The lack of a prolonged dry spell since the start of autumn has meant that the already-saturated ground has been unable to absorb more water, meaning it has flooded much easier.

Forecasters are predicting more rain to fall today – the Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for between 12pm on Thursday and 3am on Friday.

Michael Burgess, whose driveway the tree fell on (Image: Charlotte Bond)

The weather warning is in place for towns such as Ipswich, Southwold, Felixstowe, Stowmarket and Woodbridge, while Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket are not included.