An investigation must take place into flood defences in Cumbria, the county council leader has said, after they failed to protect homes against Storm Desmond this weekend.
High winds and downpours ripped through northern England bringing widespread flooding and forcing the army to step in to evacuate people from areas including Carlisle, Keswick and Appleby.
Scores of thousands of homes in Cumbria have been without power, while roads, schools and hospital services have been closed.
Stewart Young, leader of Cumbria County Council, told the BBC: ‘I'll be talking to our local MPs later today and, if we need to, the Environment Agency needs to revisit them [flood defences]. That's what's going to have to happen because we can't continue to have events like this, we just won't be able to cope.’
For further details on the latest flood warnings the Environment Agency has a live map on its website here.
More persistent rain is expected later this week, and prime minister David Cameron chaired an emergency Cobra meeting this morning.
He said on Twitter the meeting would ensure ‘everything is being done to help those affected by Storm Desmond’.
The meeting is also expected to raise the issue of future flood defences after residents in affected areas criticised the multi-million investments that have been made over the last 10 years and were designed to protect against 100-year events.
Floods minister Rory Stewart, in Carlisle, said: ‘When you face, as we have now, probably the highest rainfall we have ever had in the United Kingdom, it is going to come over the top of defences.
‘But what the defences do do is they slow it down, it gives us more time, it's given people here more time to evacuate safely, and it's meant that there's less water on the streets than there would have been if we hadn't had that defence in place.’
John Leyland, deputy director of operations at the Environment Agency, rejected criticism over the failed flood defences in Cumbria, while speaking on BBC Radio.
'We warned hundreds of residents and communities about the impending rain. What nobody could have predicted is the amount. Unfortunately the flood defences were just not going to be able to protect every single property,' he said.
'They slowed down the flow and it gave us more time to evacuate residents and protect communities. The water we have seen in the street would have been a lot higher if we had not spent money on these defences.'
He added that £45m had been invested in flood defences in the county since 2005 and more would continue but stressed the amount of rainfall seen this weekend was an 'unprecedented event...beyond the forecasts and beyond the models'.
There were still problems with rail services this morning after many roads and bridges were closed over the past two days.
