Mid Suffolk have updated their website with useful information as well as a reminder of the ongoing support available.  Please continue to liaise with your district councillor(s) should you require any further information or local help.  Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán: Useful information - Mid Suffolk District Council - Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Councils - Working Together

Since Storm Babet and the resulting flooding, Suffolk County Council has committed significant resource to helping residents and business to recover. Click on this link to view a briefing note that summarises that work and provides important new information about post-flooding investigations, grants that are available and other activity to reduce the risk of flooding in the future.

Suffolk County Council would appreciate it if you could help them to communicate this information to members of your community. Suffolk County Council would encourage residents and business to complete a Local Evidence Collection form for those that suffered significant flooding, please click on this link to download the form for completion.

The storm brought over 75mm of rain fall over large areas of the county from Thursday night into Friday, an event this severe has less than a 1% chance of happening each year. The storm resulted in more than a month’s worth of average October rainfall in just 24 hours. This is the most widespread flooding event to impact the County for a significant number of years and it is anticipated that several hundred homes may have been internally flooded from rivers and surface water.

Staff from local authorities and many other organisations, co-ordinated by the Joint Emergency Planning Unit, have been working alongside countless community volunteers to support the initial stages of recovery across Suffolk. For many households this will obviously be a long and difficult process. The following page on our website: Flood Recovery information for Suffolk - Suffolk County Council, provides useful information about flood recovery that can be passed on to impacted residents.

Suffolk County Council is designated as the Lead Local Flood Authority, and has a duty to collect information about the impact of flooding including undertaking investigations into “significant” flood events.

Council staff will carry out these investigations when internal flooding has occurred multiple times for a single dwelling or when five or more homes are internally flooded in a specific location. Once investigated, the resulting reports seek to highlight the likely causes, options to reduce future flood risk and the relevant organisation/homeowner responsibility for undertaking any improvements. The Council has no powers to require any of the responsible bodies to take action, but the reports are published on the Council’s website.

So, what happens next?

With an event on the scale of Storm Babet one of the immediate challenges is to record where the flooding has occurred and the extent of the impact.

We are asking for your support to encourage all affected residents to report significant flooding to individual properties by clicking on this link and using the Highways Reporting Tool, if they do not have access to the internet they should call the SCC customer service number: 0345 606 6171.

How to use the Reporting Tool:
Click on Report It, (green button in the top left hand corner) then click Drainage and Flooding and select the most appropriate drop down option. Please include as much information as you have, there is also an option to upload photos.

Once a report has been submitted, officers will contact the resident to gather further information and prioritise those locations that meet the criteria for an official investigation (known as a Section 19 Investigation). It is anticipated that this initial contact will be made during the next week. The investigations will follow, but until the scale of the challenge is determined it is difficult to estimate the timescale to complete this task. It is expected to take at least several weeks, but could take months before all of the investigation reports are published.

It is far too early to say what new projects may be possible to reduce the risk of this type of flooding happening again. The results of the investigations may reveal opportunities for the Council and other responsible organisations (such as the Environment Agency), landowners and homeowners to increase resilience to flooding. The Government currently has a 6-year, £5.2 Billion programme to fund flood risk projects and there is the potential to access this in Suffolk, however local match funding from local authorities, businesses and even homeowners is often required to fully fund this work.

If you know of residents in your communities which suffered significant flooding to their property, please forward them this email and encourage them to use the reporting tool to allow us to prioritise the next steps.

Useful Information

Click on this link for further information about Flood Risk Management in Suffolk 

Click on this link to the Riparian ownership guide 2019 (responsibilities for managing ditches and other watercourses):

 If you have any questions, please email: floods@suffolk.gov.uk – but please do not submit reports of flooding to this inbox and be aware our response times may be slower than usual in the short term.

 

FLOODING AND YOUR PROPERTY:

According to the Environment Agency, over two million people in England live and work in properties at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea, whilst more face flood threats from groundwater, surface water, sewers, and reservoirs.

Here is a link to a guide to preparing for a flood and protecting your property - https://www.gocompare.com/home-insurance/flooding-and-home-insurance/limiting-flood-risk-and-damage/

In extreme conditions you won't be able to stop flood water, and you should always put personal safety above attempts to protect property and possessions. Despite this, there are steps that you can take to keep water out, to buy yourself time to preserve property and possessions, and to limit the damage that flood water does.