East Suffolk Council
Flooding guidance
Householders living in areas that have been flooded in the recent past or may be susceptible to flooding in the future are strongly advised to give some thought to flood protection measures for their property. Responsibility for protecting individual properties against flooding lies with the householder and not the local authority.
- Flood alerts and warnings, and, five day flood risk forecast
- General guidance
- Flood Re - National insurance levy scheme for affordable insurance for those at risk of flooding
- Protect Your Property
- Flood resilience products for your home
- Report a flood in Suffolk
Additionally, the Council will be able to assist in the following ways:
- Assist in any evacuation or relocation of residents to rest centres during an emergency
- Assist with road closures and overflowing drains caused by flood waters
- Assist in the clean up after the flood waters have subsided
- Advise and assist residents after the event
Forecasts and warnings
Flood warning information, as well as guidance about preparing for floods, can be obtained from the Environment Agency website.
When exceptionally heavy rain is forecast, the Met Office will publish local weather warnings.
Sandbags
In Suffolk, all the Local Authorities have taken expert advice and agreed not to provide sandbags to protect individual properties:
- They will not protect an individual property against flooding. Water can get into a house through doorways, utility access points and through sewerage systems and can make the situation worse, as they can become contaminated with sewage.
- Sandbags are really only helpful to divert surface water on roads or from ditches – houses or businesses need proper flood defences fitting.
- Response agencies use the limited sandbags resources available in an emergency by deploying them in bulk to raise/repair existing flood defences or to divert water away from groups of properties.
Removable flood boards or gates, although more costly, are significantly more effective than sandbags in preventing water entry through doorways and air bricks and are therefore likely to provide better property protection during floods.