Last month, Wales experienced severe flooding during Storm Bert, which caught many residents off-guard. Despite impact assessments carried out before the storm, the flooding was far more severe than anticipated. During an inquiry into Wales’ preparedness for flooding, a director at the Met Office, Simon Brown, stated that they were reviewing whether a yellow weather warning issued ahead of the storm was the right decision. MPs on the Welsh Affairs Committee chair, Ruth Jones, are investigating whether the warnings were adequate to protect Welsh residents from the impact of the storms.
Mr Brown explained to MPs that prior to Storm Bert, there had been two weeks of relatively dry weather, leading to soil conditions drying out. Therefore, meteorologists had not predicted that there would be as much flooding, and subsequently, the impact assessment proved inaccurate. However, Storm Darragh was different, as there had been a lot of wet weather beforehand. Mr Brown told MPs that their agency would review whether the warning issued for Storm Bert was appropriate given how events unfolded.
Head of flood incident risk management at Natural Resources Wales, Jeremy Parr, told MPs that significant damage was caused by the weather event, with more than 700 Welsh homes flooding. This was in contrast to Storm Darragh, which involved much more wind and less rainfall. Mr Parr also warned that as the warming of the planet makes extreme weather events more frequent, there needed to be ‘sacrificial land in some locations so that communities don’t flood downstream. The problem is that such land is often owned by someone, and it is questioned whether they should give it up to minimise flooding risks’.
During the inquiry, business owners in Pontypridd reported that they still did not have answers about why the drains had flooded during the storm. They want improvements made to the systems to prevent this from happening again in the future. Rico Orsi, who owns the cafe Zucco, felt that the yellow weather warning issued was inadequate and reflected on how the community felt like ‘sitting ducks’. Meanwhile, Jayne Colman, who owns Martha’s Homestore, rejected suggestions people should be more responsible, arguing that business owners take great care to prepare themselves. Instead, better communication with local authorities is required to help prepare for future incidents
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