The Environment Agency has expanded its flood warning service
across Cheadle, Stockport and the Platt Bridge area of Wigan to
ensure more people than ever across Greater Manchester are warned
about any imminent risk of flooding.
The new flood warnings cover almost 800 homes and businesses and
will see a warning message issued when flooding is forecast and
then again to warn users if impacts are likely.
Flood warnings tell people about the risk of flooding to their
home or business, and help people make informed decisions about
how to respond. There are three types of warning – Flood Alert,
Flood Warning and Severe Flood Warning.
Residents can register for the new service for free and choose to
receive notifications via phone call (voice recording), text or
email and by fully registering, people can also sign up to
receive warnings for multiple locations.
Improving the Service
The new flood warning areas have been added as part a result of
new modelling and data - part of the Environment Agency's drive
to continually improve the flood warning service it provides
across the country.
Several of the new locations to receive flood warnings were
places that flooded over the New Year period.
Laila Berry, Flood Resilience Team Leader at the Environment
Agency, said:
We know all too well the devastating impact that flooding can
have, which is why protecting people and communities is our top
priority.
Our staff use the latest technology to monitor rainfall, river
and tide levels 24 hours a day to forecast flooding.
The extension of our flood warning service will allow even more
people across Stockport, Cheadle and Wigan to take action
and stay safe if flooding is likely to occur.
“We would encourage all of those people in new flood warning
areas to fully register their preferred details via Gov
UK or Floodline for free, for both their safety and peace of
mind.”
Be Prepared for Flooding
Householders are encouraged to prepare if they receive a Flood
Alert which could mean packing a bag that includes medicines,
insurance documents and anything else they wouldn't want to lose
if flooding were to take place.
A Flood Warning calls on people to act now which means turning
off gas, water and electricity and moving family and pets to
safety. A Severe Flood Warning means you are in immediate danger
and should follow advice from the emergency services.
The accuracy of flood warnings improves over time as the
Environment Agency gather more data and get a better
understanding of how the river reacts to heavy rainfall. In the
short term in new flood warning areas, there may be a higher than
normal occurrence of false alarms, due to them always being
issued on the side of caution.
There are over 1.6 million users registered to receive flood
warnings at the touch of a button across the country. These flood
warnings are generated from river level data which is collected
via an extensive monitoring network across England.
The data is combined with weather forecasts, river models and
other information to produce location specific flood
forecasts.
Find Out More
Home and business owners will be auto enrolled to the Flood
Warning service via their mobile network. However, to get the
most benefit out of the service the Environment Agency is
encouraging people to register directly with them by calling
Floodline on 0345 988 1188, or visiting https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/warnings where
they can register preferred contact details and sign up for
multiple locations if appropriate.
Know what to do when you receive a flood warning and download
this flood plan – https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/what-to-do-in-a-flood
To sign up to the new flood warning service please visit:
http://www.gov.uk/sign-up-for-flood-warnings or
call Floodline on 0345 988 1188.
People can also check your long term flood risk at https://flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk/long-term-flood-risk.
