![Flood water at Naburn Lock on the outskirts of York after Storm Isha](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/24/TELEMMGLPICT000363734896_17061181929650_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq9PikuTrmQO3f57XLkA28TG8HY4ZFrniSXaLtLcTAUTE.jpeg?imwidth=680)
‘Met Office forecasts save lives’, insists minister amid criticism of too many flood warnings
Royal Meteorological Society says deluge of cautionary statements risks complacency towards severe weather
![Flood water at Naburn Lock on the outskirts of York after Storm Isha](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/24/TELEMMGLPICT000363734896_17061181929650_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq9PikuTrmQO3f57XLkA28TG8HY4ZFrniSXaLtLcTAUTE.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Met Office storm forecasts “save lives”, a minister has insisted amid criticism over flood warnings in the wake of Storm Isha and Storm Jocelyn.
Alex Burghart, the Cabinet Office minister, said that timely warnings from forecasters helped prevent widespread damage from the two winter storms that swept across the UK this week.
His comments came after the Royal Meteorological Society cautioned that too many warnings risked making people “complacent” about severe weather.
At least two people are known to have died as a result of Storm Isha. One, an 84-year-old man, was killed after a tree was blown down onto his car. The other, a man in his sixties, died after a traffic accident involving two vans and a fallen tree.
Responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons, Mr Burghart said: “The forecasting capabilities of our experts in the Met Office and the accuracy and speed at which they can warn and inform the public of incoming severe weather events does, with no doubt, save lives and protect our homes and businesses.”
The minister’s comment came after Prof Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, said on Tuesday that “probably not a day has gone by” this week “without a weather warning”.
“There are so many of those, the concern is that people might become complacent,” she added.
![Workers remove a fallen tree from an electricity substation in Larbert](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/24/TELEMMGLPICT000363724926_17061183021190_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqmRz2i0BYLgZHjHqS8l-Quf4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=350)
Some MPs hit out at the Government over flood prevention measures, with some saying their constituencies were struggling with high water levels after the two storms passed.
Seema Malhotra, the Labour MP for Felton and Heston in West London, said in Parliament on Wednesday: “The level of water in our streets [after] storms that is unable to drain away is getting noticeably higher and higher.”
Layla Moran, the Lib Dem MP for Abingdon, added that water run-off from new housing developments was causing problems, blaming property developers for not clearing drainage culverts.
Mr Burghart said: “In terms of alerts, normal flood warnings were operated. We didn’t use the national alert because it didn’t reach the threshold and our local partners didn’t ask us to use it. But from what we can see at this stage, that local system worked well.”
The National Audit Office said in November that 200,000 homes were at “increased risk of flooding” because the Environment Agency was not spending enough on flood defence maintenance.