The Argus visited the Lighthouse Park estate shortly after the evacuation began tonight.

A police officer at the scene said: "There's a lot of vulnerable people here and they have been taken to the Newport centre and then given accommodation.

"Basically there's two high tides tomorrow and those are the ones we are concerned about.

"A coach has been taking people from this area. There's about 170 properties here and everyone has been visited by police and given the option to leave.

"Police officers will remain on site all night to give people the opportunity to change their minds and as a security measure they will be patrolling the area.

"The majorly of people are in the process of leaving or have left."

A couple from the Lighthouse Park Estate who chose to stay are Barry, 60, and Catherine Law, 62. When they spoke to the Argus they were warmly wrapped in high vis jackets and had just been for a walk along the sea wall to check the water levels before they made a decision.

Mr Law said: "No, we are not evacuating.

"We are going to watch the news and weather and then make a decision. The car is packed if we need to go, in five minutes we can be off.

"There seems to be different people saying high tide will be at different times so we are just going to see what happens."

Another couple from the estate who chose to stay are Jayne Griffiths, 50, and husband Dennis.

Mrs Griffiths, who was in local pub The Lighthouse with her family when she spoke to the Argus, said: "We are not planning on leaving. We've been evacuated before, and unless it's an actual tidal wave I'm not too worried.

"We have been given the choice to leave, we were actually in here (the pub) when they came in to say they were evacuating.

"If they said we have to evacuate because it was so dangerous of course we would but it doesn't seem to be as serious as that.

"Plus my husband wouldn't budge anyway!But no, I'm not too worried. I've spoken to the police officers and they don't seem to know how bad it will be, so we will just have to see."