Sandbags at the ready
I received a letter from the Environment Agency Wales last week. Well, actually it was addressed to someone who used to live here over 4 years ago, before I bought the flat!
On the envelope it said “Your property is at risk from flooding.” In a sort of Ostrich (ignore it and it’ll go away) kind of mentality I didn’t open the envelope; I marked it “Not known at this address – return to sender” and bunged it back in the post.
Today I received another one “Please take time to read this. It is very important“. Anyway I opened it and the letter was encouraging me (well Anna-Marie to be slightly more accurate) to register for a free ‘advance warning of flooding’ service. Apparently, a serious flood can devastate my home. Now, I live in a first floor flat so it’s going to have be a very serious flood me thinks, but I thought I may as well ring the number and get their mailing list details changed if nothing else.
The lady at the Environment Agency was not at all phased by the height off the ground of my property, and pointed out to me that parking, access to the front door and failure of the electricity supply may all be relevant concerns in the event of a flood. She updated their records and I’m now going to receive telephone warnings of impending floods anytime 24 hours a day. On their map for my postcode, the chance of flooding each year is only moderate, i.e., 1.3% (1 in 75) or less, but greater than 0.5% (1 in 200).
See Environment Agency Floodline for more info.
OK, so where do you buy sandbags from? – it’s been raining most of today.
Tagged with environment agency, flooding, floodline, rain, sandbags