The Flood Hub

The festive season is a time for celebration and joy with family and friends. However, for those living at flood-risk, the celebrations can sometimes be overshadowed by a feeling of anxiety as they navigate the Winter months.

This blog been written by a member of the Newground Flood Team.

 

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Flooding during the festive period can disrupt plans, cause distress, damage properties and put lives at risk. Taking a proactive and prepared approach to flood resilience can help mitigate some of the worries during possibly the busiest and most hectic time of year for many. This blog discusses some of the steps you can take to ensure you’re gifted a flood resilient Christmas season.

 

1. Check your flood risk

As a priority, you should check your flood risk. You can do this by entering your postcode on the gov.uk website here: https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk, and you can find out your annual risk level for flooding surface water, rivers and the sea, groundwater and reservoirs. Once you are aware of the level of flood risk, and source of flooding you may be at risk from, you can then start to plan your resilient approach around this.

 

2. Stay informed & have a trigger

If you are at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea, some areas are covered by the Environment Agency Flood Alert and Warning Service. The service allows you to receive a notification, either by text or email, if a flood alert or warning is issued for your area. This allows you to receive a pre-warning notification so that you can action the steps in your flood plan. If you are at flood risk from another, or additional, source of flooding which won’t be covered under the EA Flood Alert and Warning Service, check out our ‘Alternative Warnings Resource’ here.

The Met Office Weather Warning App is a great tool to use as part of your triggers. You can download the Met Office Weather App here, and you can tailor it so you can receive real-time weather warning notifications for your area.

 

3. Prepare your home

You should take steps ahead to prepare your property before the festive period.

• Elevate any valuable or sentimental items – find out more here.
• Check your insurance covers flood risk – find out more here.
• Create a flood plan – find out more here.
• Pack a flood kit – find out more here.
• Use Property Flood Resilience measures to protect your property, find out more here.
  • If you are going away over Christmas, you may want to prepare your home before you go, or ensure you have a neighbour or friend who knows how to install it in your absence.

 

4. Protect your Christmas plans

A flood event would easily disrupt all festive plans, but with preparing beforehand you can create a contingency plan to ensure you can spend time with family and friends. Please note, this is alongside all the other steps which have been mentioned above.

• If heavy rain is forecast over the festive period, ensure any Christmas gifts are moved to a higher level. Avoid placing any valuable or sentimental items under the tree, but use waterproof plastic storage boxes instead.
• If heavy rain disrupts travel and road or rail networks become un-usable due to flooding, consider a virtual celebration. Platforms like Zoom, Skype and Teams worked effectively during the Covid-19 pandemic in keeping people connected with their family and friends and such platforms could also work well over Christmas if plans are disrupted.
• If you are required to evacuate by the emergency services you must follow their instruction, even if it disrupts festive plans.

 

5. Check in with your community

Christmas can be a lonely time for some people, yet it is also a time when communities get busier with festive activities and events which encourage community spirit.

• If you have any vulnerable neighbours nearby, work with your wider community to re-assure any residents who might need extra support that there are people who can lend a hand should a flood event occur.
• You should work with your community to ensure that any blocked watercourses are reported to the relevant authority. Find out about the importance of reporting here.
• If you find a blocked highway gully, if it is safe and you are able to, you should clear the blockage by scraping away any debris with you foot. However if the blockage is larger, or too difficult to clear, you should report it to your local highways authority or Highways England. Find out who’s responsible for managing flood risk here.

 

Flood resilience shouldn’t just be a thought through the winter months. It involves planning and preparing and taking proactive steps to protect your property at all times of the year. You can view our ‘household flood planning toolkit’ here here, which includes all the resources you need as an introduction to becoming flood resilient.

You can also find our ‘How to Reduce the Impact of Flooding: 5 steps to flood resilience’ resource in the toolkit which explains some of the points mentioned above in further detail here.