Flooding threat in UK as great as threats of terrorism and epidemics

by (author unknown), Blue Gold, European Water Partnership Blog on Jan 13, 2008

By Valerie Elliott, Consumer Editor, Sunday Times


People living in flood-risk homes are being urged to evoke the wartime spirit by keeping their own emergency kit.


The threat of flooding in England is as great as that of terrorism or a flu pandemic, and planning for it should be treated as a priority, a review of last summer’s floods concludes.


The advice that households should go on a war footing to tackle floods were given yesterday by Sir Michael Pitt, head of the independent review of the chaos that was brought to many parts of the country by floods this year and which led to more than £3 billion in insurance claims, the biggest single claims event in British history.


It followed the wettest May-to-June period since records began in 1766 and left 13 dead and 48,000 homes and 7,000 businesses underwater in the South West, the Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside.


In an interim report published yesterday, Sir Michael made it clear that Britain was not as well prepared as it should have been. Among a series of urgent recommendations was the need to stockpile and requisition vital supplies such as rescue boats, sand-bags, food and drinking water.


He said that the flood-proofing of emergency services, electricity and gas sub-stations, water and sewerage treatment centres must be prioritised.


Buildings earmarked for evacuation and rest centres in such incidents also needed to be resilient to flooding. Some were underwater this summer.


He suggested that planning permission should be required before front gardens could be concreted over to provide off-street parking or for new garden sheds and patios. The run-off from these hard-standings was seen as a significant problem in the groundwater flooding that particularly affected Hull and Sheffield.


Flood awareness should also be part of the home-buying process and people should know in advance if the prospective house were at risk.


It should be included in the new Home Information Packs that must now be compiled by homeowners before they can sell their property.


Every home should also keep its emergency flood kit. A sealed plastic box should be stored as high as possible with essential documents, emergency contact numbers and items of sentimental value.


Other suggested essentials are a torch, a battery or wind-up radio, mobile phone, rubber gloves, wet wipes or antibacterial hand gel, first aid kit and blankets.


Many will also be tempted to stockpile bottled water – last recommended by the Government when it feared the Millennium bug in 2000. People were horrified by the misery for 350,000 residents in Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury who lost their water supply for 17 days after a treatment works flooded.


Power and water supplies were lost, railway lines, eight motorways and many other roads were closed and large parts of five counties and four cities were brought to a standstill.


According to the report, it was the biggest loss of critical infrastructure since the Second World War.


Sir Michael, a civil engineer and chairman of the South West Strategic Health Authority, also called for better weather forecasting and improved modelling techniques to identify precise locations at high risk.


He also wants to see more take-up of insurance in flood-risk areas and for householders to register with the Environment Agency for flood alerts, texts or phone calls.


He was surprised by the way some people assumed they would not be affected. He did not seek to apportion blame for the general unpreparedness.


But MPs are scathing about the performance of the Environment Agency. The Commons Public Accounts Committee said that despite a funding increase of 40 per cent, flood defences in England had not markedly improved.


It questioned whether the extra £200 million pledged to be spent on flooding by 2010 to 2011 would be used properly. The allocation is to go up from £600 million to £800 million.