Wales weather: Strong winds and rain begin to ease

Heavy rain and strong winds have begun to ease across Wales after a weekend of power cuts and transport disruption.

A Met Office amber warning, meaning "be prepared", for wind was in place on Sunday, along with flood warnings for the Lower Dee Valley, Severn and Wye.

Some roads are still blocked by floods and fallen trees, and while 64,000 properties have suffered power cuts only a handful are still affected.

There are yellow warnings for ice on Monday and heavy rain on Tuesday.

Meanwhile a search was taking place on Sunday afternoon for a kayaker who had gone missing in the swollen River Usk at Llangynidr, near Crickhowell in Powys.

Warnings of high winds and a yellow "be aware" warning for rain continued into Sunday affecting most of south, west and mid Wales.

People living on the coast were warned to expect severe gales and large waves, with gusts of between 60mph and 70mph. Inland wind speeds were predicted to exceed 50mph.

A yellow "be aware" warning of ice has been issued for most areas of Wales on Monday, and a yellow warning for rain on Tuesday with an increased risk of flooding.

Road and rail disruption continued on Sunday.

• The M4 near Swansea reopened at 11:00 GMT after recovery teams moved a lorry which hit the central barrier on the Briton Ferry bridge and overturned on Saturday. Services had waited for winds to die down before taking the vehicle away.

• In Powys, the A490 Welshpool remained closed both ways between A458 and B4388 because of flooding.

• In Monmouthshire, the A4042 in Abergavenny was shut between the A40 Hardwick roundabout and the B4269 Llanellen junction due to flooding.

• Birches Road, in Penallt, has been closed after a fallen tree damaged a water main. Welsh Water is on-site, but the road could be closed until Monday, Monmouthshire council said.

• The M48 Severn Bridge and the Cleddau Bridge in Pembrokeshire were subject to intermittent restrictions due to high winds.

• The railway line between Abergavenny and Hereford has been reopened following an earlier landslip.

Fallen trees brought down power lines in Gwaelod-y-Garth, near Cardiff

Abergavenny in Monmouthshire has seen flooding this weekend

Stormy seas at Marloes, Pembrokeshire, on Saturday

On Saturday several roads were closed due to flooding and fallen trees, while traffic was restricted on the M48 Severn Bridge, Britannia Bridge in north west Wales and the Cleddau Bridge in Pembrokeshire.

Western Power Distribution (WPD) said with winds easing only around 55 properties across south, west and mid Wales were without power at 13:30 GMT on Sunday, which a spokesman said was about normal for a Sunday afternoon.

The company said it had reconnected 64,200 properties in the 24 hours up to 06:30 GMT on Sunday.

Communities affected ranged from Dale in Pembrokeshire to Llandeilo, Swansea, Brecon, and Abersychan near Pontypool.

A WPD spokesman said as well as problems with high winds a lightning storm took out some power lines on Saturday.

Engineers worked through the night to fix lines across south, west and mid Wales with fresh teams responding to incidents on Sunday.

ScottishPower said there had been no cuts in its area serving north and mid Wales.