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3.3 Causes of Flooding
Flooding of a property may occur if one or more of the following events occurs:
• Rainfall fills rivers, streams and ditches beyond their flow capacity.
• Floodwater overflows river banks and flood defences onto flood plains.
• Coastal storms can lead to the sea breaking through, or coming over the top of coastal flood defences.
• Blocked or overloaded drainage ditches, drains and sewers overflow across roads, gardens and into properties.
• Overloaded sewers can sometimes back flow into properties.
• Storm water runoff from hills and slopes.
• Rain soaks into the ground, causing groundwater levels to rise and flood.
Not only can flooding cause damage to possessions it can leave a home uninhabitable for a significant period of time and cause
serious damage to the building fabric. It can even affect the future resale of a property and therefore its value.
3.4 How To Reduce Flooding Impact
Reduce Floodwater Getting into the Property:
• Ideally, cover doors, windows and airbricks with plywood, sandbags, metal sheeting or a ‘bought in’ product produced
for the job.
Gas, Electricity and Water:
• Turn off gas, electricity and water supplies at the mains. Find out where these controls are well in advance of any flood.
• Unplug all electrical items and store upstairs or as high up as possible.
• Put plugs into sinks and weigh them down with something heavy.
Furniture and Appliances:
• Move as much furniture and electrical items as possible to upper accommodation. Alternatively raise them up on bricks
or blocks - this may be very helpful for large appliances such as fridge freezers.
• Move furniture away from walls, as this helps when drying your property later.
• Roll up carpets/rugs and move to upper floors.
• If there is no time to remove curtains, hang them up over the rail so they are kept above floodwater.
• Leave internal doors open, or ideally, remove them and store them in upper accommodation.
Personal Items:
• Sentimental items such as photos cannot be replaced. Think about permanently moving such items to upper
accommodation.
• Keep important personal documents in a sealed bag and in a location safe from floodwater. These should include
passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, contracts, title deeds, etc.
Outside the House:
• Move anything not fixed down into a safer location, e.g. dustbins, garden chemicals, car oil and similar.
• Move cars to higher ground to avoid damage.
• Weigh down manhole covers outside the house to prevent them being forced off and leaving a hazardous hole.
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