Flood Risk Assessment
More and more properties, both business and residential, are seeing their premises flooding due to the increased rainfall. We have all seen the graphic images on TV of houses being almost completely under water with cars floating down the street.
It may be time to consider doing a Flood Risk Assessment to determine the effects that flooding could have on your home or business if you were to be affected in the future.
If your business or home is near to a river, a canal or very close to the sea a Flood Risk Assessment could help you to minimize the effects if your area is flooded in the future.
If you are building a new property have you checked to see if the area has ever been affected by flooding? Even having the electricity supply entering your property from a higher level could help as could placing your plug sockets higher on the walls to prevent your supply being damaged in the event of a flood.
Is your property at the bottom of a hill? You may find that, when the rain begins to come in torrents, your property could be at risk from flooding. Have you investigated any steps to prevent that from happening?
In the UK the Environment Agency has flood risk areas on up to date maps, its worth checking the website prior either buying a property or for Builders ensuring that your potential contracts are not likely to flood and cause severe delays to the site.
If your residence is in an area that has already been affected by flooding, you may want to re-think where you store all the things that are valuable to you. Are your family photographs and important documents stored in a downstairs cupboard? If they are, maybe you could find an area upstairs to store them so that, if you are faced with incoming flood water, you will give yourself more time to get these things out before they are destroyed by the flood water.
For your business: do you make a backup of all your computer files each evening before you leave and take it home with you? You should make this a habit so that, in the event of your business being affected by flooding, you will still have important information to enable you to get your business back up and running without too much downtime. This one habit alone could save your business from failing in the event of an emergency.
So, if you have not done a Flood Risk Assessment on your residence or business, you really should consider doing one now to help minimize the effects if you are unlucky enough to be affected.