MONDAY'S overnight flooding meant extra work for the emergency services, who were stretched to the limit as they worked around the clock.

Wiltshire County Council's emergency planning team opened their special operating centre to help co-ordinate the response to the flooding problems.

In Devizes, Wiltshire police set up a severe weather room at its headquarters, with a special countywide emergency number for people to ring: (01380) 720003.

At Chippenham, the north and west Wiltshire area was covered by a special severe weather room set up at the police station.

PC Adrian Burt said it had been a joint operation between the fire brigade, the police and the county council.

He said: "It dealt with people's queries and collated information on things like road closures.

"The people that had to be evacuated from Bradford on Avon were dealt with from here."

PC Burt said the operation had been stood down but could be up and running again if the weather changed for the worse again.

Fallen trees brought down power lines, as well as blocking roads, which meant electricity repair workers were also working for most of Monday night.

Andrew Livingstone, of Southern Electric in Melksham, which covers most of west and part of north Wiltshire, said it had been a busy 24 hours.

"We've dealt with well over 100 calls, from anything from one to 500 customers.

"We had guys working right through the night.

"It's difficult to say when it will all be back to normal. The majority of customers will be back by midnight Tuesday.

"Trees have been causing problems and it has been taking a lot of time to clear them."

A spokesman for Wiltshire Ambulance Service said that while she was unable to say whether they had more calls than normal because of the weather, it had caused problems.

"We have had trouble getting crews in and getting to places," she said.