The Irish Times
Weather due to improve over coming days, forecasters predict
British prime minister David Cameron meets soldiers from the Royal Gurkha Rifles, at a military command centre in Chertsey, southern England. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters
The
military could have been brought in earlier to help deal with the
winter storms that have been wracking Britain, a Government minister has
admitted.
As the weather finally gave the country
a respite, defence secretary Philip Hammond defended the government’s
handling of the crisis. He said Royal Engineers were now being tasked to
carry out a high-speed assessment of “serious” to damage the UK’s flood
defence infrastructure.
But Mr Hammond conceded
that in future the Government would involve the military earlier in the
process, and be more “aggressive” in urging local authorities to use
troops. Swathes of the UK remain on high alert as people battle to
protect their homes and communities from the floodwaters, which are
still expected to rise in places despite the break in the storms.
The
Environment Agency (EA) has 16 severe flood warnings in place for the
South West and the Thames Valley, with almost 150 flood warnings and 230
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