Flooding latest: Major train disruption and 150 flood warnings as Storm Bert leaves trail of destruction

In the aftermath of Storm Bert, some people in south Wales have expressed anger about what they say is a lack of preparation as large parts of the country were devastated by heavy rain over the weekend.

In Pontypridd in Rhondda Cynon Taf, residents said lessons were not learned from Storm Dennis, which left much of the town underwater in 2020.

Andrew Morgan, the leader of RCT council, said he was “amazed” that only a yellow weather warning was put in place after Storm Bert, saying an amber warning was expected.

The Met Office said it would conduct a “full assessment” but that the storm was “well forecast” in advance “with a number of warnings in place”.

Sian Williams from Natural
Resources Wales said on BBC Radio Wales Breakfast this morning that the government body would “absolutely” look into complaints that
warnings came too late.

“We will review what happened. We will
review the lead up to that; the preparedness for the incident and what actually
happened during the incident,” she says.

NRW monitors river levels and Williams said each of the initial flood alerts were issued on Saturday
evening.

“Was there something wasn’t
right with the trigger levels for the river? Did we miss it. Did we not issue
it in time?,” she said.

“We completely understand
people’s frustration, but we do need to look into why that was and what could
have been done differently, and how we can improve on that in the future.”

Heledd
Fychan, Plaid Cymru Senedd member for South Wales Central, said the
warnings came far too late and added there would be lots of questions over why
lessons were not learned from 2020.

“It’s just by luck that it wasn’t worse this time,” she
told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.