Hundreds of UK flood warnings still in place

Homes and businesses on the Welsh coast were evacuated last evening, following fears that another tidal swell could cause serious damage, as parts of Britain continued to suffer from extreme weather.

British environment secretary Owen Paterson, one of the most sceptical of British ministers about climate change, acknowledged that extreme weather episodes were “going to continue”.

In the House of Commons, Mr Paterson said more targeted weather forecasting had helped to stave off disaster for tens of thousands of homeowners, while flood defences had safeguarded nearly a million homes, he claimed

Heavy rain in parts of Britain meant that 100 flood warnings from the Environment Agency are currently in place in the southeast and the southwest of England and the midlands.

People living in Dorset, Oxfordshire, south Wiltshire, Hampshire and along the Thames have been warned they could face yet more flooding later this week because the land is so saturated it cannot absorb any more water. So far, nearly 2,000 homes in England and Wales have been flooded, while 750,000 were without electricity for some time – a figure that has put pressure on privately owned energy firms to explain their Christmas staffing levels.

In the Commons, Mr Paterson said early warnings given out by the Meteorological Office and the Environment Agency had been widely circulated, though not all councils and local organisations had acted properly upon them.

“There were a number of cases on the ground in which a few organisations could have been better informed, reacted quicker and done more,” he said.

“That is what we want to examine. We need to get the system sorted out.”

The Conservatives and Labour have clashed sharply on the sums being spent to defend local communities, with Mr Paterson claiming that he had a £2 billion (€2.4 billion) investment plan to run until 2021.

Local councils have had to repeat calls to people not to undertake their own rescue missions and, more commonly, not to take risks on the shore to watch the raging waves – which has repeatedly sparked alarms in recent days.