BUSINESS STANDARDS
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After the flood

26 Oct 2007
Topics: Flood, Risk management, Business continuity, Kitemark®

This summer saw major floods hit the UK, from Yorkshire and Gloucestershire to Humberside and Lincolnshire. As well as bringing misery to thousands and causing billions of pounds worth of damage, these incidents also highlight valuable lessons that can help to minimize the risk of future flood disruption.

The most important lesson of all is that old Scout motto: "Be prepared". The first step for homeowners and companies, says Katharine Evans, policy manager for flood incidence at the Environment Agency, is to find out whether your property is in an area at risk of flood. This part's easy: the Environment Agency's website (www.environment-agency.gov.uk) offers a postcode search facility that instantly tells you whether you're at risk.

If you are indeed at risk, the next step is to prepare. For businesses, this means having a robust business continuity plan in place ? and this is where many firms fell short this summer.

"For quite a few companies, it would appear that the damage has been made much, much worse because they had inadequate ? or in some cases didn't have any ? back-up plans to tide them over while their business premises were drying out," says Malcolm Tarling, general insurance spokesman at the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

As well as being left with uninhabitable offices and factories, many companies in the Carlisle area also lost vital information: "Quite a few businesses lost years worth of data," says Evans. This is because they did not back-up their digital records off-site. "You can lose records of customers, who will quite easily go elsewhere if it takes you quite a few months to get back up to speed."

Businesses on flood plains need to have a plan in place, both for alternative accommodation, such as rented office space, and for data protection, such as regular offsite back-up. Taking practical precautionary steps can also make all the difference for homeowners.

"Replace wooden floors with concrete floors, consider having electrical sockets further up the wall, above the water line," says Tarling. "That doesn't necessarily make for an aesthetically attractive property, but in an area that floods regularly, these measures can easily save you up to £15,000 in terms of reduced flood costs."

Homeowners should make protecting irreplaceable items such as wedding albums and family videos a top priority, adds Evans: "People don't need to store them on the ground floor if they are at flood risk. If they've got an upstairs bedroom or spare room, valuables are better off stored there."

As well as preparing for the event of a flood, homeowners and businesses alike can also invest in flood protection products that can reduce the amount of water that gets into their property. These products could either keep the water out completely or, in the event of a serious flood, at least buy you time to move valuables, equipment and stock out of harm's way.

BSI runs a Kitemark scheme for both domestic and commercial flood protection equipment ? PAS 1188 Flood protection products. Each part of the scheme covers a specific type of product:

Removable products for installation as barriers across building apertures, such as doors and airbricks. Temporary, freestanding barriers that are assembled close to buildings. Building skirt systems.

The product tests are carried out in partnership with HR Wallingford, a consultancy that specialises in physical modelling work, in a purpose-built facility.

"The tests in all three parts of the standard are essentially the same," says Lee Neale, Kitemark scheme manager.

"HR Wallingford does a static water leakage test; a wave leakage test; and a current leakage test ? BSI also assesses against the factory production and control requirements of the standards."

The Kitemark scheme covers products that protect from flooding up to a depth of 0.9 metres. When floodwater rises above a metre for a long period of time, it is better to let it into a property, otherwise the build-up of water pressure against the building exterior can do serious structural damage.

The Environment Agency supports the Kitemark scheme and provides a list of Kitemark-certified flood protection products on its website. Mary Dhonau, national director of the National Flood Forum and a past flood victim herself, also approves of the scheme.

"The end-user needs to know that what it says on the packet actually works," she says.

Indeed, the Walham power station in Gloucestershire was saved from flooding by a Kitemark-certified flood protection product this summer ? dramatically reducing the amount of potential disruption in the area.

What is the government doing to protect properties from future flood damage?

"Our business is about long-term strategies," says Evans at the Environment Agency. These include pushing for changes in farming practices (which can affect the impact of future floods) and upgrading coastal and river defences.

With winters getting wetter, the sea level rising and the south-east of England sinking at a rate of approximately two millimetres a year, the government certainly has its work cut out.

Tarling says that the insurance industry ? which dealt with nearly 50,000 claims as a result of the two flood incidents this summer ? will keep on providing flood insurance, so long as the government continues to invest in flood defences.

"The UK is pretty unique in the world in making flood insurance widely available in the private market," he adds.

However, Tarling says that insurers have one further ? and crucial ? piece of advice for the government, as well as property developers: Don't build on a flood plain.

"Insurance is against the possible and the likely, not the inevitable," he says.

For more information: www.bsigroup.com/oct07construction

Business Standards © 2010. Editorial produced by Caspian Publishing in association with The British Standards Institution. Editorial opinions expressed on are not necessarily those of BSI Group or Caspian Publishing. Neither Caspian Publishing nor BSI Group accept responsibility for advertising or editorial content, nor for that appearing on linked third-party websites. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without written permission from BSI Group or Caspian Publishing.

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