Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service is 'preparing for the worst and hoping for the best' as Storm Eunice continues.

An amber weather warning is in place across the county for wind, with gusts of up to 50mph expected on Friday afternoon.

East Midlands Railway urged customers to avoid travel – and many of Nottinghamshire's country parks and attractions were closed to the public.

Damien West, Head of Strategic Support, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, said the service is "really well prepared" for weather events such as this.

He said: "In recent years we have only seen these sort of warnings and incidents around flooding.

"For high winds like this, with gusts of up to 80mph expected today, that is really unprecedented for around here.

"Off the back of the storm a couple of days ago we saw structural damage to trees, thankfully nobody injured. This is significantly worse than that.

"We prepare for the worst and we hope for the best."

He said the service is asking residents to not go out unless they need to, secure trampolines and garden furniture and take precautions around parking your car.

He said that the fire service has not had many incidents reported – but there have been a lot of calls to the control room.

He added: "If there's a threat to life or public safety is at risk, please do call 999. If there are things like fallen trees, that is for the local authority, or damage to buildings would be for a landlord or a builder."

Rob Fisher, Emergency Planning Manager at Nottinghamshire County Council, said that the authority has been preparing for falling trees, debris across highways, damaged buildings and possible injuries.

He said: "Storm Eunice is possibly the largest storm we've seen affecting Nottinghamshire since storm Doris which was some five years ago now. Certainly, we remember very clearly the impact of that.

"We have seen this before but it is rare. The Met Office has declared it as amber for across Nottinghamshire but that does mean to say there is a danger to life. We are being very vigilant today to monitor what impacts we are seeing.

"The County Council is prepared to clean up debris and we have taken the precautionary step to close our country parks. We are encouraging people to keep away from wooded areas."

The cafes and centres at Idle Valley and Attenborough Nature Reserve were also closed today due to the strong winds.

Erin McDaid, Head of Communications & Marketing, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust said they had chosen to close the centres due to the "the severity of the weather warning".

He said the move is "quite unusual but not unheard of".

He added: "We try to stay open as much as possible. We have had to close centres, particularly with things like floods and snow in the past.

"We're always concerned because nature reserves have so many trees – but it's also a risky day to be out travelling.

"If the weather subsides as planned, we do aim to open again tomorrow."