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by Karma Loveday

Environment Agency urges communities to know their flood risk

The Environment Agency is urging communities to make sure they know their flood risk through a newly launched annual awareness campaign. The watchdog said the operation – Flood Action Week – has emerged from the outcomes of “increased extreme weather events”.

The agency said some 5.5m homes and businesses in England are at risk of flooding and climate change is only increasing the dangers. It said Met Office figures showed that Storm Babet brought the third-wettest independent three-day period in a series for England and Wales since 1891, while the Midlands provisionally recorded its wettest ever three-day period.


The agency said that while it protected more that 100,000 properties from flooding any Babet, some 2,100 properties were flooded. Chair of the agency, Alan Lovell, said: “We know that some flooding can’t always be prevented. That’s why it’s essential you know what to do in a flood.

“Knowing just one action can reduce the effects on your home and family and even save lives. Anyone can go online to check if they are at risk, sign up for warnings and, crucially, know what they need to do if flooding hits.”

During Flood Action Week – running 20-26 November – the agency will remind people to protect themselves from future flooding; sign up for flood warnings by phone, text or email and to check their long-term flood risk from rivers, the sea, surface water, reservoirs and groundwater

The agency and its partners Flood Re – a joint initiative between the government and the insurance industry – are running a campaign: Be Flood Smart which seeks to encourage householders to adapt their homes with property flood resilience measures.

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