Preparing for and dealing with flooding and storms.
According to the Environment Agency, heavy winter rainfall means that 5.5 million properties in England and Wales are at risk of flooding.
Planning ahead
It’s worth carrying out the following steps to help prepare yourself and your property for possible flooding:
- Check the relevant environmental regulators websites to see if your property is in an area that might be affected by flooding from a river, sea or other water source.
- Sign up to receive flood warnings. The Government runs a flood warning service.
- Review the Environment Agency’s guide for preparing your property for flooding. This guide gives more information on the appropriate measures that could protect your property.
In the event of flood and storms
The Association of British Insurers has produced a guide to ‘Responding to Floods’
If heavy rain and winds are forecast, make sure unsecured items that can cause damage in high winds are secure
Place important documents in polythene bags out of flood risk
When you have received a warning that your business is going to be flooded:
- Prepare to take action in accordance with your Business Continuity Plan (BCP)/Disaster Recovery Plan and Flood Plan
- If you haven’t prepared such plans then you will probably have very limited time to safely take action to minimise the damage which is going to occur. The following tips may be of some help:
- Your first priority must be the safety of your employees, customers and visitors. If you are an operator of a business such as a residential or nursing home, boarding schools, hotel and similar establishment you will need to be speaking to the local authority emergency planning officer(s) and the emergency services without delay to notify them of your situation.
- For wholesalers and manufacturers (without a BCP), determine what limited buffer quantity of goods, materials and components, patterns, designs and data etc, are absolutely vital in the short term in order for the business to be continued at a temporary premises elsewhere. Consider whether these can within the time safely available, be either moved to another safer secure location or moved to a higher storage location within the premises (where other less vital goods may currently be stored).
For further information on how we can help with your home insurance, business insurance or property owners insurance, call us now on 0191 482 1219.
*This content is by no means exhaustive and is for guidance purposes only. It’s not intended to amount to advice on which reliance should be placed. For requirements specific to your business, please seek professional advice.
