Flood Warnings
There are 3 levels of flood warnings:
Flood alert - Prepare
- prepare a bag that includes medicines and insurance documents
- check flood warnings
Flood warning - Act
- turn off gas, water and electricity
- move things upstairs or to safety
- move family, pets and car to safety
Severe flood warning - Survive
- call 999 if in immediate danger
- follow advice from emergency services
- keep yourself and your family safe
Know how to turn off your gas, electricity and water
If you leave your home during a flood you’ll need to turn off your mains water, gas and electricity if it’s safe to do so. You should find out in advance how to do this.
The location of water stopcocks, gas shut-off valves and electrical master switches varies between properties. The gas shut-off valve is usually beside the meter. The mains electricity cut-off is usually a big red switch on your fuse box. If you can’t find your water stopcock, ask someone with practical experience or a plumber to help you.
Check your insurance
Make sure you have insurance to protect your home or business. If you have buildings and contents insurance, check if flood damage is included.
If you rent your home, it’s your responsibility to protect your belongings.
This guidance outlines things to consider and steps that you can take to inspire and involve residents, local communities and groups to work together to improve how you prepare for the risk of flooding.
This guidance is for anyone involved in supporting communities or groups to improve their ability to plan for a flood, such as:
people active in the local community
leaders of community groups
schools, hospitals or residential care homes
local responders
people working in the voluntary sector
any other interested members of the community.
LIT_5286_b9ff43.pdf
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when sandbags are useful and when they work
how to get sandbags
health and safety considerations when using sandbags
how to use them to protect your property
Sandbags.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [262.9 KB]
Would your business stay afloat? This is a simple guide to some of the easy actions that you can take to make sure that your business is as well prepared as possible for flooding.
It tells you how to find out if your business is at risk, the Environment Agency’s flood warning service and what our flood warning codes mean. It also has a simple template to use to design a flood plan for your company.
LIT_5284.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.2 MB]
While it’s impossible to completely flood-proof a property, there are lots of things you can do to reduce the damage flooding can cause. This guide will tell you more, such as raising electrical sockets.
LIT_4284.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [1.1 MB]
printable copy of the flood warnings
flood_warnings.pdf
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