Downing Street Says

» Monday, November 23, 2009

Flooding

The Prime Minister’s spokesman (PMS) updated the assembled press on the floods in Cumbria before being asked whether the 2m which had been committed by the Government would be enough. The PMS said that we would make sure that we would do what is immediately necessary in a situation like this. The most immediate concern would be to get people back into their homes, to help them get food and to help keep them warm. He said that some of that money would go towards ensuring that we could start the structural review of all of the bridges. We would continue to look at the situation to see what else would be needed and the Belwin scheme would pay out what would be required for immediate recovery.

Then asked whether the Government thought that the floods were a result of climate change, the PMS said that we all know that there is a significant issue around climate change and the problem of global warming. He said that we did know was that this was a one in a thousand years rainfall so the scale of what has happened in Cumbria is historic. He said that you could not draw a conclusion from one event like this but the Government is committed to seeing world progress at Copenhagen on the wider issue of climate change.

When asked whether it was related to other floods in recent years, the PMS replied that he was not a climatologist and would not want to draw any conclusions where they did not exist but there were unfortunately floods throughout the years in lots of places in the UK. He said that it was a very dramatic rainfall and there was a wider issue about climate change but that we had to focus today on helping the people of Cumbria.

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» Monday, November 23, 2009

Flooding

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