Unprecedented downpours to blame for floods
FOLLOWING the worst flooding that Carmarthenshire has experienced in over 30 years at the weekend, with Storm Callum wreaking havoc on communities in the county, the leader of Carmarthenshire County Council, Emlyn Dole, answers our questions.
Q. Why did the flood defences fail so badly? ED: Because the level that came down was unprecedented, we had yellow and amber warnings.
The high levels were something we haven’t seen for 30 years, and even longer. The River Towy was half-a-metre higher than we have ever seen it.
Although the flood defences are pretty high they weren’t high enough in some areas, especially in Carmarthen where we had that level of rainfall on top of tidal surges.
Both the rivers – Towy and Teifi – are tidal. With the rain coming off the mountains it created a surge of water.
It was very much the same in the Abergwili area and in Newcastle Emlyn. Q. How can we stop this happening again? ED: At the moment we are in recovery mode across the county to help the people in need, that’s our first priority.
We are undertaking a very thorough impact assessment on infrastructure – that’s going to take a while.
On Monday morning I put in place a fund of £100,000 for domestic properties, aimed specifically at people who were uninsured who might be worrying about their future.
We also have a £200,000 fund to help businesses.
We have housing teams working with residents affected and regeneration officers with businesses.
We are doing our very best to make sure they get back to where they were before this catastrophe last weekend.
Q. Who should foot the bill for the clean-up operation and damage caused to properties? ED: At this point that’s the least of my concerns.
My initial reaction is not who should pay but let’s put money in place, so everybody gets that security of knowing they are able to access those funds and use those funds to put right what’s happened.
We will be asking Welsh Government for support to deal with ongoing costs in terms of the impact assessment around infrastructure as it’s going to be quite significant.
Q. Did the council do enough for communities to prepare for the storm? ED: We got as much preparation time as the warnings of wind and rain allowed.
What happened the weekend was unprecedented level rainfall.
With the tidal flow as well it was something we hadn’t seen before.
In terms of an initial response, we mobilised our resources from Friday and all over the weekend to support all respective agencies in dealing with events.
There is a multi-agency group working with businesses and houses undertaking an impact assessment and support.
We think we did well.
There is always room for improvement and to take stock of it and that will all be done in due course.
At the moment we are focusing on making sure everybody gets the help and comfort they require. Q. Is the council going to launch a review of what happened to identify where action needs to be taken?
ED: Once everyone over an of very has been dealt with in a proper way we will be looking at how we reacted and how we responded to it.
Q. Does more money need to be spent on flood defences?
ED: Absolutely – we have had to trim our costs while trying to ensure the least possible cuts to flood defences.
We are of course a coastal authority and have rivers as well.
We have been doing all we can to safeguard those budgets but that can only happen to a certain extent.
We are under the same pressures as every other council is in terms of austerity.
With funding cuts from Welsh Government we are looking at having to find in real terms around £9 million next year to balance the books. I have to count every penny.
What has happened is a tragedy and it is a bit of a wake-up call to Welsh Government in that you just can’t keep cutting local government funding because you’re endangering people’s lives by doing it.
It was a once-in-a-30year event but we know in the context of climate change the next one might come a lot sooner than we think.