Overnight weather warning issued and flood defences go up as Storm Gerrit lashes Shropshire

The yellow weather warning for wind covers most of Wales and east Shropshire when a "brief spell of very windy conditions is likely through Wednesday evening and night, bringing the chance of some disruption".

Firefighters have had to pull two vehicles out of flood water in the south of the county after a spell of heavy rain this afternoon.

The Met Office said the high winds could lead to a slight chance of some damage to buildings, such as tiles blown from roofs, some delays to road, rail, air and ferry transport as well as some short term loss of power and other services.

There is also a small chance of injuries from flying debris.

Starting at 6pm today, the weather warning is expected to expire at around 3am on Thursday.

Vehicles got stuck in the water in Bitterley Road, Ludlow, and on the B4364 Ludlow Road, Bridgnorth this evening.

In the former incident, a vehicle got stuck in a ford. Firefighters were called out at 4.35pm and helped remove it.

Crews were called to the other incident just 15 minutes later. A car got stuck trying to go under a bridge. It was pulled out by a tractor, which had straps attaching the two vehicles provided by the fire service.

The Met Office forecast said: "During Wednesday evening and night, a further spell of very strong southwesterly winds is expected to sweep east to produce gusts of 50 to 60 mph.

"Heavy, squally showers will accompany these strong winds. The winds will ease later in the night."

John Sleight in Telford said a tree had already blown down behind his property in Station Fields on Wednesday afternoon.

He said: "We have just had a tree fall down at the back of our houses at station fields, we have been trying to get them pruned since the new houses were built over five years ago, now these trees are getting dangerous in the wind.

"This tree was well over 30 feet tall, so if you were underneath walking across the path you would be dead."

Flood alerts are also in place across the county and flood barriers have gone up in Ironbridge.

The barriers on the Wharfage were put up on Wednesday morning, with barriers at Frankwell in Shrewsbury, and Bewdley, having been in place since before Christmas to guard against rising river levels.

Chris Bainger from the Environment Agency said that high winds were making the deployment in Ironbridge "particularly challenging".

Describing the River Severn as "very swollen", the agency's fisheries technical specialist said: "We are expecting the River Severn to peak at a height of 4.8m to 5.3m in the coming days.

"There are a number of events that are colliding into each other, bringing further peaks as we go past today."

Shropshire Council also closed both Frankwell Riverside and Main car parks in Shrewsbury on Wednesday. Resident, season and weekly ticket holders have been advised to park at Raven Meadows Multi-Storey instead.

The council has also warned people about a number of footpath closures in the town due to flooding.

They include the route from Greyfriars Bridge to The Weir, from the Pig Trough to West Mid Showground, and from New Street to The Stew/Frankwell Car Park.

A number of flood alerts are in place including the River Severn in Shropshire, Severn Vyrnwy Confluence and the River Severn in Worcestershire.

However, the most serious flood warnings have been lifted.

But the Environment Agency said it expects further flood defences to be put in place later this week along with further flood warnings and flood alerts as Storm Gerrit continues to lash the county.

The agency added that river levels are expected to remain high until December 29, and that they are closely monitoring the situation with incident response staff checking defences.

The Met Office is warning of wind speeds as high as 45mph in Shropshire along with more heavy rain early on Thursday morning, but the weather is set to ease by around 6am when county can expect just light rain throughout the day.

Sunny spells are set to return on Friday morning but more heavy rain is forecast on Saturday with Sunday set to be dry but windy.