Natural Resources Wales to review Storm Bert weather warnings

Warnings given to residents in Wales about the severity of Storm Bert by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) will be reviewed in the coming days, an employee has said.

A major incident was declared in Rhondda Cynon Taf on Sunday, 24 November, with between 200 and 300 properties in the area affected by flooding from the storm.

Council leader Andrew Morgan said the weather was worse than forecast and that he was “amazed” only a yellow weather warning had been issued.

Wales' First Minister Eluned Morgan said it had been “a really difficult weekend” and was “absolutely devastating just before Christmas” for those affected.

Sian Williams, head of operations north west for NRW, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that the agency would look into whether any part of its data gathering for the storm had not been done correctly.

Asked if NRW gave Welsh residents enough time to prepare for Storm Bert with its flood alerts, Ms Williams said: "Coming on to today now and into the next few days and weeks, every event that we have we do reviews of them, and we will be looking at that.

"That is a report that we’ve had from a few different places, saying that their people didn’t have enough warning yesterday (Sunday) morning, so absolutely that is something that we need to look at."

She added: "Did something go wrong? Were the river levels that we use as triggers set in the wrong place? We don’t know yet what the timeline was, but it is important that we review it, that we look at it, that we learn those lessons.

"If we need to do it sooner, then that’s definitely something that we will look at doing."

Two severe flood warnings, meaning there is danger to life, have been issued for the River Monnow in south-east Wales for Monmouth and Skenfrith.

A further eight flood warnings and 21 flood alerts also remained in place on Monday morning.

But Ms Williams said the worst impacts of the storm had now subsided and that the forecast looked "good" over the next couple of days.

She said: "Thankfully, the river levels and the rain has mostly now passed, the river levels are dropping.

"We do expect now that those flood warnings and alerts will mostly come down today and tomorrow. We believe that the flooding has peaked now in Monmouthshire, so even on the slower-running rivers on the east of the country we do expect those levels to drop now."

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