Storm Ciara smashed into Britain with winds close to 100mph causing "biblical" flooding and travel mayhem nationwide.
Nearly 138,000 homes were left without power after a month’s worth of rain fell in one day in some areas.
Dozens of flights were cancelled with others diverted as far away as Germany because of the perilous conditions from the high winds and torrential rain.
One BA plane was forced to declare an emergency and land in Lyon, France as it ran low on fuel while waiting to touch down at Gatwick.
As waves up to 50ft high battered the coast, hundreds of P&O ferry passengers were stranded at sea for hours as the Pride of Hull struggled to dock.
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The Isle of Wight was cut off after ferries were stopped as winds of 97mph were recorded at landmark The Needles while the port of Dover was also closed.
Sporting events, including Manchester City’s Premier League clash with West Ham were called off.
Helen Roberts, from the Met Office, said: “In terms of area this is probably the biggest storm this century.”
She added she had not seen amber warnings – the second most severe level – “on this scale across all of Wales and much of England”.
“This could end up being the biggest since 1987,” Ms Roberts said, when the “Great Storm” killed 18 people and felled an estimated 15 million trees.
Her colleague, Alex Burkill, said that this was just the start warning of “plummeting” temperatures this week.
There would be dangerous ice in the North he said, and snow showers affecting many parts of the country.
“Once we say goodbye to Storm Ciara, it’s not a complete calm-down by any means,” Mr Burkill said.
“It’s not a pleasant outlook. It’s going to stay very windy, we’re going to have plenty of heavy showers with hail and thunder and some snow.”
Yesterday’s winds damaged multiple buildings including London’s Victoria station and a guest house in Hawick, Scotland, which partially collapsed.
Trains were cancelled and planes in Manchester and London aborted landings faced with 86mph winds.
Residents had to be evacuated in Lancashire and Yorkshire as rivers burst their banks and a major incident was declared by Lancashire police.
Families hit by Boxing Day floods in 2015 were in the line of fire again and those hit by November’s River Don floods were warned to “be prepared”.
Sirens in the West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge warned of what was to come. Hours later, parts of nearby
Mytholmroyd were under 4ft of water as it flooded for a third time in eight years.
Resident Adele Smith said: “Utter devastation in my home town of Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge and a catastrophic failure of the flood alleviation scheme, which is nowhere near finished.
“For all those non-believers of global warming visit the Calder Valley.” Keith Crabtree, a flood warden for nearby Todmorden added: “I can sum it up in one word: grim.
“That’s through the whole of the Valley, ...there’s problems all the way down.
“It’s striking me like another Boxing Day... the number of incidents are certainly at Boxing Day 2015 levels.”
Yorkshire shepherdess Amanda Owen watched a metal livestock carrier being swept away on a hillside.
She said: “The energy and power of this storm are unreal. The gusts of wind are exceptional and water is pouring.
“Can’t believe this just happened. A flood of biblical proportions.”
Emergency services ferried residents to safety using inflatable boats in the Lancashire towns of Bury and Ramsbottom.
And Bury councillor Tamoor Tariq helped families board a bus to a temporary rescue point set up at a local leisure centre.
Mr Tariq told the Mirror: “It’s so deep we’ve had to close off the roads, we had to support people coming out the properties because some of the water was knee high.
There are bins floating around and lots of residents outside their properties.”
The Environment Agency issued 226 flood warnings and a red “danger to life” was declared for severe flooding from the River Nidd at Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire.
Three people were injured when a pub roof in Perth, Scotland, collapsed.
And non-league football club Wisbech Town, Cambs, faces a £20,000 bill to replace a stand destroyed by the winds
Amid the chaos the Queen stayed away from church at Sandringham, eight of London’s royal parks closed and Chester Zoo and Yorkshire Wildlife Park shut.
London’s Winter Run 10K for 25,000 racers was also called off along with the opening ceremony for Galway’s year as European Capital of Culture.
