Flood inquiry head says next UK disaster waiting to happen

Guardian (UK): Rain forecasts for individual streets will be needed to avoid a repeat of the flood disaster in parts of the UK a year ago, a government adviser said today. Sir Michael Pitt, head of an independent review of how the June-July floods were handled, said climate change would mean more extreme weather events, bringing damage to homes and businesses.

Pitt said his final report would recommend giving local councils the lead responsibility for flood risk management. But he admitted many of them lacked the skills and resources to carry it out. They had been stripped of their expertise with the privatisation of the water industry, which led to council experts joining the private sector, he said. Pitt, whose final report is due out in a few weeks, said the Meteorological Office and the Environment Agency needed to collaborate much more closely to improve flood warnings…

The River Rye near Nuggington, North Yorkshire, UK, swollen after a heavy rain, by James F. Carter, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License