south wales with heavy rains and strong winds. there are weather warnings for wind and rain covering much of the country, or the water levels higher than you were expecting? absolutely, es. an 11th hour deal at the cop 29 climate summit after negotiations on financing for poorer nations went into overtime, but many aren't happy, as some nations, including india, say the dealfalls far short of what is needed. israel's government says an israeli rabbi missing in the united arab emirates has been found dead. the office of prime minister benjamin netanyahu described his death as an act of anti—semitic terrorism. and — max verstappen finishes fifth at the las vegas grand prix — winning his fourth consecutive formula one world title. he said it had been "very challenging" season. police in north wales say they've recovered a body in the search for a 75—year—old man who disappeared yesterday.

brian perry was walking his dog in an area affected by significant floodwater, next to the conwy river near trefriw. there's been no formal identification but the police say his family have been informed. storm bert is continuing to batter parts of britain for a second day with wales being badly hit this morning. a major emergency has been declared in pontypridd after the river taff burst its banks. there are nearly 50 flood alerts in place for wales with continued heavy rain causing flooding to roads and rail lines with a number of rivers bursting their banks. with me is our news correspondent simonjones. he can talk to us about the latest picture and in south wales they are really struggling under those conditions.— struggling under those conditions. �* . , conditions. are really grim situation. _ conditions. are really grim situation. we _ conditions. are really grim situation. we were - conditions. are really grimi situation. we were warned conditions. are really grim i situation. we were warned in advance that storm bert was going to be with us for a couple of days and described as a multi—hazard event bringing with it lots of rain in parts of the country, bringing with it snow and flooding. certainly todayit

it snow and flooding. certainly today it is south wales that seems to be hearing the brunt. we have had a news conference in the past hour or so. a major incident was declared by the fire and rescue service there. they said at one point they were getting 120 people trying to call in to their incident room. that gives you a sense of the scale and how widespread the scale and how widespread the flooding has been. we have heard from the council that although there were warnings in place, amber warning of rain. they were surprised that wasn't upgraded, to amber and turned red because they felt their beauty was a threat to life. we have put that to the met office and are waiting to hear back from them because they issue these warnings. but they reckon that so far may be 300 properties have been affected, people's homes, and also businesses. they are comparing the situation to storm dennis, which was back in 2020, that caused a huge amount of damage.

they say they have been looking at the river levels and in places the river level today is half a metre higher than it was during storm dennis that caused so much chaos. they feel they have put flood defences in place after storm dennis. in the following four years. they say there was so much rain that came down and running off the hills that they couldn't cope with the situation. although they handed out sandbags to local residents ultimately there was not much the sandbags could do the water was gushing through and that is why the wedding was in place and that although the situation improving in terms of river levels they are warning people it is still dangerous.— it is still dangerous. what is the picture _ it is still dangerous. what is the picture across _ it is still dangerous. what is the picture across the - it is still dangerous. what is the picture across the rest l it is still dangerous. what is| the picture across the rest of the picture across the rest of the country?— the country? whether the weddin: the country? whether the wedding to _ the country? whether the wedding to entice - the country? whether the wedding to entice much l the country? whether the| wedding to entice much of southern england, here in london i havejust been outside the building and there is still very strong gust of n and there have closed all the royal parks in london because winter so

strong. also you have weather warnings in place with strong winds for northern ireland and parts of scotland and also should be wales. when you go outside it is notable so warm it is when it is surprising when you took register but it has brought in some very warm weather that has put an end to the recent cold snap. these warnings edgy to be in place until nine o'clock this evening and lots of areas but that may not be a bit because i have just had to look at the rail companies here in southern england and i are warning there will be knock—on effects tomorrow morning, partly because the trains will have to go slow initially in case trees have come down on the line per safety reasons and they cite that the storm has blown so many leaves down but those leaves cover part of the railtrack, when you have a layer of leaves it can actually be a slippy as black eyes. i think although it may be going through this evening it may be we will feel the consequences may be entered tomorrow and

beyond. may be entered tomorrow and be ond. v may be entered tomorrow and be ond. �* , ., ,., may be entered tomorrow and be ond. �*, ., beyond. there's often some sort aftermath- _ beyond. there's often some sort aftermath. thank _ beyond. there's often some sort aftermath. thank you. _ let's speak to our weather presenter, ben rich. what can you tell us? we have seen the many _ what can you tell us? we have seen the many impacts - what can you tell us? we have seen the many impacts from . seen the many impacts from storm bert this weekend. we had a significant snowfall yesterday but today it is the strong wins and heavy rain that have been causing issues. this is entirely consistent with what we would expect from the uk weather in a changing climate. there is not a lot of evidence that change is making our weather more stormy. we are not necessarily seeing more storms but when those storms turn up they are bringing more intense rainfall. a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture and so more moisture available to be dumped as heavy rain. we have seen the flooding impacts across south wales. we now have two severe flood warnings that have been issued for the river mono in monmouthshire, the most severe

form of flood warning, obviously those flooding problems will be ongoing. it is easy to see why we have had flooding and we look at our rainfall radar. this is 36 hours worth of rainfall radar and across parts of wales and south—west england over the high ground there are places that have recorded more than 150 millimetres of rain. to put this into context we are talking about more than a month's worth of rain in the space ofjust a weekend. all of that water making its way through the river systems. they just have not been able to cope. what happens next? while is slowly but surely improving. you can see a bit of wales but the biggest impact over the coming hours may well be across the south—west of ringwood, a pinto south midlands, still in the top of enforce here but the rain. we have also had to die some very strong winds. bearing the blunt of those strong winds early today with the south—west of. yeovilton somerset, wind

gust of 76 must per hour looks like the strongest wind gust they have had a tubal tent since 1990. more than 30 years. in the last couple of hours we have seen the winds picking up again across the western side of scotland. met office yellow warning is in force for the strength of the wind is not only across the south and east of england but also across northern ireland and the western side scotland, it will be legislating first off is that what happens next, the area of low pressure storm bert will push close to the north of ready and when at night, still very windy, particularly in the north of uk, but storm slowly sliding away during tomorrow and think should slowly start to come down.— and think should slowly start to come down. thank you. let's show you _ to come down. thank you. let's show you the — to come down. thank you. let's show you the live _ pictures from porthleven in cornwall, where as you can see we have been reporting how effects of storm bert still being felt there with the high

winds and all that rather fierce c. it is lapping up against the coast. the authorities in south wales earlier gave an update on the situation they have been facing. g situation they have been facina. �* , ., ., facing. a brief overview from the latest — facing. a brief overview from the latest information. - the latest information. probably facing 300 properties affected which residential and commercial stuff and now investigating and attending the sites across the country to determine weather there is internal or external flooding, between 200 and 300 to figure we are currently using full stop they might rainfall we have had an responses from the rivers, ijust want have had an responses from the rivers, i just want to make a particular point that the river gauge if we look at the website, over half a metre higher than

this morning the gauge meas this morning ured 23mm this morning, above the storm dennis record. and just to say those records set almost five years ago were considerably higher than previous records going back a number of years. it has come down meant that there has been some slight delay. while we've seen significant flooding in pontypridd, for example in mill street, uh, and others, we haven't seen the major flooding that we saw in in storm dennis. further down the valley where the water surge in has not met at the same time. nevertheless, there is significant flooding from the rivers estimated in at present between 100 and 200 houses which have been affected out of that overall figure have come from river flooding. most of the assets that have been upgraded by the council since storm dennis, where we've spent around £100 million of government funding, upgrading assets and replacing structures. my understanding is the majority of them are present have held, however, a number of culverts which are due to be upgraded

and are in the outline business case stage have failed and unfortunately it has caused flooding in parts of the rhondda, in particular treorchy and treherbert. the river overtopped in porth into people's homes. it's overtopped, as i've already referenced, in pontypridd treforest industrial estate and waiting for an update on where the river has breached in treforest. our own council depot at tye glen taff has been flooded, but not internally this time. but it was doomed, storm dennis, so the amount of resources we have out has been quite exceptional. we've drafted in yesterday because we were expecting bad weather, although, however, now i have to say we only had a yellow weather warning. although we were concerned with the amount of water and rain forecast, we decided proactively on friday and again yesterday to treat it as an amber as we've introduced protocols since storm dennis in terms of the amount of resources we have available. we introduced our amber protocol yesterday on the basis of the amount of rain, even though it was a yellow warning.

but i have to say that again, our resources have been stretched overnight, and today we've called in around a dozen different contractors using heavy plant pumps, additional road sweepers, gully emptiers vectors, etc. but unfortunately, you know, it is a really difficult time. i just want to say one bridge, which was the last one actually to be replaced following storm dennis, which was abercynon feeder pipe bridge. it was under construction following being substantially damaged during storm dennis. as i say, it's the last of almost 20 bridges to be replaced. it was completely washed away last night, so the scaffolding, the piers and everything related to the construction phase of that new bridge has completely gone. so that is another multi—million pound scheme that we'll now have to start over again. um, i think that's all from myself. i'd be happy to answer particular questions, uh, as we move forward. thank you, councillor morgan. at this point, i'll hand over to the chief fire officer. good afternoon.

to provide the update on behalf of south wales fire and rescue authority. so i'm fin monaghan. i'm the chief fire officer of south wales fire - and rescue service. uh, earlier on today, - we declared a major incident. that was the the fire i and rescue service that declared that based i on the number of calls that we were getting - and the number of assets that we were having to - distribute out on the ground. for your information there. at the peak of the the calls, we had 120 calls stacked up. and to to give you ani idea about how things work, as we declared the major incident, l we were in a position i that we were then able to off—load those calls onto other. neighbouring fire i and rescue services who then helped us deal with the the call flow. i we had about 75% of our available assets i out on the ground, and we'vej had people out on the ground there doing incredible work. if you just step outside, - you can see one of our our fire appliances, which has been here for quite i a quite a period of time. and that is reflected right -

the way across the, the whole of our area of responsibility. so we went early on declaring this| as a major incident to make sure that we were able to l up skillthe numberl of people who are in the headquarters. so we brought i lots of people in. and what that allows us to do is to establish some lily padsl where we've got good command and control in various _ specifically affected areas. so people out on the . ground doing command and control roles, but also in fire control as well. - it's been a very busy morning and going into the afternoonl we're looking at the the met. we're looking at the forecasts that we'vej got both for rainfallj and for river levels. it's looking as though the i rainfall is going to subside. and we are seeing that the flow in a number of rivers _ in the area subsiding. the number of calls - has gone down as well. so we've we've reduced the number of, of, -

of calls that are coming - in to us than we've seen quite a significant reduction there. so that provides - you with an update. and i'm happy for any questions to come to me on anything - that that you might. have a concern about. thank you. 0k. and before we open up to questions, i'lljust remind our colleagues, if you could thenjust remind us who you are representing and also _ indicate who your question is directed to. it was also remiss of me earlier that i should have mentioned that of course, south wales police and natural resources wales weren't able to join us this morning, but they are happy to pick up specific queries or questions that you have through the normal channels. so i say happy to open up the floor to questions please. i'll start with the front please. from itv wales. my question to mr andrew - all the families and i the people i spoke to today, they feel angry, - frustrated and devastated. they want answers. what would you like to say to them? - why are they going | through this again? well, ultimately the amount of rain that fell last night was again exceptional. as i said, it's broken records in terms of river monitoring,

in terms of some of our own assets such as culverts, etc. we've increased and repaired or completely renewed around 150 since storm dennis. and my understanding is all the evidence from the meetings i've had today, the vast majority of them have worked and held an emergency control room was manned throughout the night. we have cctv cameras and alarms on the vast majority of culverts so we can respond quickly. so that does come down just to the volume of water in terms of river flooding. then we've been working with nrw, who ultimately have responsibility for rivers. that's nothing to do with us. however, there has been a huge amount of mapping work carried out because part of the issue where i've been pressing about where we can intervene and where they can intervene in terms of river flooding, part of the issue is around if you build a flood wall in one area, potentially you push water somewhere else in terms of further downstream. so they've had to carry out a complete catchment review on the rivers canon, rhondda and taff all the way down to cardiff.

that work now is reporting, so i'm hopeful nrw will be able to come forward with at least some evidence to say in some areas, maybe not all, but in some areas they can intervene. well, we're listening to members of the rhondda cynon taff council who are having to deal with these flooded rivers. we were hearing from the council leader just how many rivers and streams have overtopped in this area, and also the fact that the south wales fire service have declared a major incident because of the number of calls they're receiving. you're watching bbc news. so those houses, which predominantly have been flooded every time there's been a majorstorm, probably for the last 50 or 60 years. they were dry last night. so where we can intervene as a council, we certainly are. but we want to work with partners now to see what more can be done. what measures are you taking to support people going through this right now? so immediately today has been about supporting even for example, in some

cases we've been working with the fire service about evacuating people. we have rest centres open in a number of locations and going forward into tomorrow when we move into the recovery stage, we'll be having staff out, both from our housing staff who've been deployed today. we have flood risk management staff to understand is the people's gardens and outside their the cars have been flooded or is internal flooding. we are working now to find out do they have insurance or not? so that piece of work, we have a very well established team that will be starting tomorrow. i've already had conversations now, today where i'll be briefing councillors with senior officers later this evening on the current picture. and for example, we'll be providing skips and other methods tomorrow where people are already obviously trying to do their best now to clean their houses out. we'll have damaged goods, we'll be providing support tomorrow. so the recovery position will certainly be starting tomorrow. we're trying to make sure all our roads are back open tonight, where there's an awful lot of debris has come off the mountains in some locations. so we have teams working right throughout the night tonight and tomorrow we'll be focusing much more than supporting residents. bbc i believe.

yes. danjohnson, bbc news question to either- of you or both of you. are the water levels higher than you were expecting. l in some terms absolutely, yes. so to be clear, the flood forecasting centre sent out guidance over the last few days, i've seen three of those statements issued myself, and those statements did warn of the potential for significant flooding. but they all suggested the risk was low. and that was because, based on the weather forecast, the risk of really torrential rain, the forecasters suggested, was diminishing. so there was going to still be heavy rain, but not on the scale we've seen in terms of the weather warning, i am amazed that there was only a yellow weather warning issued. um, we absolutely thought on saturday i was at a meeting on saturday, i convened a meeting with senior

officers by teams 8:30 in the morning, where we were preparing for the possibility ofan amberwarning. it didn't come, but we took the decisions ourselves to step up our resources and to have the depots open and crews in. but, you know, even even as bad as things were this morning, unless i've missed it, because i've been out since 530 and i don't know if an amber warning was issued. i certainly haven't seen it. and i'm surprised actually, there wasn't a red warning because during storm dennis we did see an amber warning well in advance and a red warning issued in the early hours. so i do think that will need to be reviewed. lives are at risk? well, absolutely. you know, when you've got a river flooding in people's houses and we're asking the fire service to rescue people by boat, then clearly lives are at risk. chief fire officer. from our perspective, obviously, it was the rate of calls that that got us to the point that we said, right now— we're triggering the the major incident. and to make absolutely clear, our priority is to make sure that any risk to life incidents are reduced. so that is our first priority. but then we start looking at various other things where we're looking to protect property

and we're looking to help people who are in difficulty. so our cascade of priorities is very clear. we've got a very clear command structure and escalating to a major incident. i've received messages from all over the country. both wales and the united kingdom, about offers of assistance, and we have taken people up on some of those to come and assist us, particularly over in monmouthshire where we've experienced some significant flooding as well. do you believe the worst has now passed? - the indications that i'm getting at the moment is that the number of calls has subsided, that the river levels are coming down. i'm just cautious here. and so we're being very cautious with this making sure that we are checking the, the ongoing weather forecasts. and just to bear in mind that heavy rain flows that take place up at altitude, then can have a knock on effect for the south. so we're monitoring that. we also know areas where that is a likelihood.

so we're monitoring those with particular emphasis. thank you. 0k. looking across the floor. bbc wales news. - what conversations are ongoing? it's probably for you, andrew. what conversations arej ongoing with the welsh government in terms of funding and assistance to help - with the ongoing situation? so first of all, the deputy first minister 1550 00:21:25,647 --> 0