The cost of Storm Bert is set to run into many millions of pounds but isn’t on the scale of Storm Dennis in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT). Councillor Andrew Morgan, leader of the council, was speaking as cabinet was told that a total of 362 properties were flooded during the storm in RCT at the end of last month.
During the storm which hit RCT on November 23 and 24, there were 263 residential properties that were flooded and 99 non residential properties were flooded. These were the figures given to cabinet members on Monday, December 16 by Steve Williams who is the council’s director of highways streetcare and transportation services.
He said that where the council has invested in flood alleviation schemes since Storm Dennis, of the 86 assets constructed, 13 were impacted and six of the assets that failed caused internal flooding to 15 properties which is 4% of the total number flooded. He said 2,269 properties were protected which he said confirmed the success of this investment.
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He said: “The cost is going to be quite substantial. It isn’t on the scale thankfully of Storm Dennis although Storm Dennis rainfall records were broken at a couple of the monitoring stations and also river levels broke Storm Dennis records at monitoring stations.” Although he said it didn’t break the record in Pontypridd he said the cost will run into many millions in terms of repairs needed and the council has enacted the emergency financial assistance scheme with Welsh Government linking Storm Bert and Storm Darragh.
Mr Williams said: “Whilst we appreciate the devastation that flooding of properties can bring to families and businesses, it is prudent to consider the effectiveness of the investment of the flood alleviation schemes and improvements that have been put in place following Storm Dennis.” Leader of the council Councillor Andrew Morgan said over 100 flood intervention schemes had been carried out since Storm Dennis and only 16 of them had any difficulty. To get the latest daily Wales Online news straight to your inbox, sign up to our newsletter here.
He said that 15 properties that were flooded were linked to council schemes so this shows the vast majority have worked. In terms of Storm Dennis repairs and flood risk schemes they’ve spent close to £100m. He added: “I think the message clearly is we’ve got to continue with the investment and ramp that up.” He said with the modelling that’s been done he hopes in the near future they’ll get some information and feedback on which communities can be protected and if they can’t be protected then what the plan is.