Storm Babet response hampered by easterly rain, says Coffey

Environment Secretary Therese Coffey told a committee of MPs that a “rapid review” would be carried out into the response to Storm Babet.

“One of the things that happened particularly with Storm Babet is that we are very good with the Met Office and the Environment Agency’s flood forecasting (centre) at predicting weather, normally because most of our rain tends to come in from the west,” she said.

“We’ve got that pretty much down to a fine art.

“This was rain coming from the other way, and we don’t have quite as much experience on that.”