More than 1,000 people in Norfolk spent Thursday night in emergency shelters after officials feared a North Sea storm would cause flooding from Humberside to Kent, The Telegraph reported.

When conditions did not turn out as bad as predicted, evacuated residents were permitted to return to their homes. But residents along the Lincolnshire coast were warned they were still at risk of a tidal surge late Friday afternoon or early evening.

Because of criticism over the handling of last summer's floods, local authorities were quick to warn some 7,500 residents.

Forecasters had said the storm could be on the same scale as one in 1953 that breached the dikes in the Netherlands and caused severe flooding in East Anglia, The Guardian reported. About 2,000 people died in both countries in that storm.

In London, the Thames River Barrier was closed.

Oil platforms in the North Sea were evacuated and ferry services to the Orkney and Shetland Islands were shut down.