Six Million Properties at Risk: Is Your Home Ready for a Wet and Windy Winter?
Six Million Properties at Risk: Is Your Home Ready for a Wet and Windy Winter?
“We can't stop the storm arriving—but we can decide whether we prepare before or after it.”
After a remarkably hot and dry summer, it may seem strange to start thinking seriously about too much water.
But that is exactly what households should be doing.
The Environment Agency says that around 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are in areas at risk of flooding from one or more sources — not only rivers and the sea, but also surface water and groundwater. Perhaps even more concerning is the finding that more than two million people may be unaware that their property is at risk.
At the same time, the Met Office's seasonal outlook points towards an increased likelihood of wetter conditions this autumn, with an increased likelihood of windy weather later in the season. That does not mean meteorologists can tell us that a particular town will flood in November. Seasonal forecasts simply do not work at that level of detail. But they can tell us that the background risk is worth taking seriously.
That makes October an excellent time for a different sort of home energy and resilience MOT.
Not because disaster is inevitable.
Because preparation is considerably easier on a dry Saturday afternoon than during a storm at 10 o'clock at night.
First Question: Do You Actually Know Your Flood Risk?
Many people hear the word "flooding" and picture a house beside a river.
If they live halfway up a hill or several miles from a major river, they understandably assume:
"Flooding isn't really something I need to worry about."
Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple.
Flooding can come from several sources:
rivers;
the sea;
surface water following intense rainfall;
groundwater;
reservoirs.
The Environment Agency specifically recommends checking your property's long-term flood risk, including surface-water risk.
That last category is particularly important.
Imagine a very intense downpour falling onto roads, roofs, driveways and patios faster than drains can remove it.
You don't necessarily need a river to burst its banks.
The road itself can temporarily become the river.
Your first ten-minute job
Use the government's flood-risk service and check your address.
Check your long-term flood risk on GOV.UK
Don't simply ask:
"Am I near a river?"
Ask:
"Where could water come from, and where would it go?"
Walk outside and actually look.
Where is the lowest point around your property?
Does your driveway slope towards the house?
Where do the downpipes discharge?
Are there air bricks close to ground level?
Could water collect outside a door?
What happens to water running down the road?
A few minutes spent looking at your house as though you were a raindrop can be surprisingly revealing.
Start at the Roof
Before buying emergency equipment, start with the ordinary maintenance jobs.
A great deal of winter resilience is decidedly unglamorous.
It involves gutters.
Leaves, moss and debris can restrict gutters and downpipes. During light rain you may never notice. During an intense downpour, however, the gutter can overflow.
Instead of water being carried safely away, it may run down walls, soak masonry or collect beside the foundations.
So before winter:
Check the gutters.
Look for:
leaves and moss;
leaking joints;
sagging sections;
loose brackets;
blocked downpipes;
water staining on external walls.
You don't necessarily need to climb a ladder yourself. If access isn't safe, get somebody appropriately equipped to inspect them.
The important point is not who cleans the gutter.
It is that somebody does.
Look Up Before the Wind Arrives
The same principle applies to the roof.
A slightly loose tile on a calm October afternoon may become a missing tile during a winter gale.
Look from ground level for obvious signs of trouble:
slipped tiles;
damaged ridge tiles;
loose flashing;
deteriorating mortar;
damaged fascia boards;
loose aerials;
insecure guttering.
Again, don't take unnecessary risks climbing onto roofs.
A professional inspection now may be considerably cheaper than emergency repairs after water has entered the loft.
Then Look Down: What About the Drains?
We tend to notice drains only when they stop working.
Autumn leaves can quickly cover gullies and drainage channels.
Take a walk around the house after heavy rain.
Are puddles forming where they didn't before?
Does water disappear quickly?
Are leaves covering a drain?
Does a channel drain across the driveway need cleaning?
Also look beyond your boundary.
A blocked roadside drain may not be your responsibility to repair, but noticing and reporting it before prolonged heavy rain could prevent a much bigger problem later.
Secure the Garden Before the Wind Does It for You
Wind preparation is another area where small jobs can prevent surprisingly large amounts of damage.
Look around the garden and imagine a strong gust arriving tonight.
What moves?
Possibilities include:
garden furniture;
parasols;
children's toys;
plant pots;
watering cans;
recycling boxes;
lightweight garden storage;
trampolines;
temporary greenhouses;
loose fence panels;
hanging baskets.
The issue isn't merely whether these objects get damaged.
A lightweight object becomes considerably more dangerous when travelling through the air.
The solution may be as simple as putting furniture away, weighting something down or securing it properly.
Your Water Butt Can Be Part of the Solution
Water butts are normally discussed in connection with drought.
But they can also play a small part in managing heavy rainfall.
A 250-litre water butt with 250 litres already inside it has virtually no spare capacity.
A nearly empty one has space available for the next rainfall event.
If exceptionally heavy rain is forecast and you have somewhere sensible to use or release the stored water beforehand, creating capacity means some of the next rainfall is temporarily held rather than immediately entering the drainage system.
One household doing this will not prevent a flood.
Thousands of households slowing down rainwater collectively can make a difference to how rapidly water reaches drainage systems.
There is a broader principle here:
Don't just dispose of rainwater. Manage it.
Gardens, soil, planting, rain gardens, water butts and permeable surfaces can all help retain or slow water instead of sending every drop immediately towards the nearest drain.
Could Your Beautifully Paved Garden Be Making Things Worse?
This is one of the uncomfortable questions worth asking.
Over the years many gardens have acquired:
paved patios;
concrete paths;
artificial grass;
extensions;
sheds;
paved driveways.
Each can reduce the amount of ground available to absorb rain.
During an ordinary shower this may not matter much.
During an intense storm it can.
Where practical, consider retaining or increasing permeable areas.
Planting beds, healthy soil, gravel, suitable permeable paving and rain gardens can all help water infiltrate or be temporarily retained rather than immediately becoming runoff.
Going green sometimes means allowing the garden to behave like a garden rather than trying to turn it into another room.
Make a Flood Plan Before You Need One
If your property is at meaningful flood risk, preparation should go beyond clearing gutters.
The Environment Agency recommends making a personal flood plan, signing up for warnings and knowing how to turn off electricity, water and gas supplies.
Ask everyone in the household:
What would we actually do if a flood warning arrived tonight?
Who would collect medication?
Where would pets go?
Which valuables would need moving upstairs?
Where are the car keys?
Where would you move the car?
Where is the water stopcock?
Where is the electricity isolation switch?
Who might need help?
Where would you go if you had to leave?
These are remarkably simple questions.
They become considerably harder to answer when water is already approaching the front door.
Put Important Documents Somewhere Sensible
Passports, insurance information, birth certificates and other important papers are often kept in a drawer at convenient human height.
Unfortunately, convenient human height may also be convenient flood-water height.
The government's flood guidance recommends keeping important documents protected in a waterproof container and somewhere accessible in an emergency.
Think about:
passports;
insurance policies;
property documents;
driving licences;
medication details;
emergency contacts;
important photographs;
essential computer backups.
Digital copies are useful too.
A secure cloud backup means the destruction of a laptop doesn't necessarily mean the destruction of the information stored on it.
Resilience increasingly means protecting data as well as possessions.
When Did You Last Read Your Insurance Policy?
Many of us renew home insurance almost automatically.
That is not the same thing as understanding it.
Before winter, check:
whether buildings insurance includes flooding;
whether contents are adequately insured;
the excess;
whether outbuildings are covered;
whether alternative accommodation is included;
whether particularly valuable items are properly declared;
how you would actually contact the insurer in an emergency.
For properties in flood-risk areas, Flood Re may help make insurance more affordable, while some participating insurers also offer Build Back Better, potentially providing up to £10,000 towards measures that make a flooded home more resilient to future events.
The best time to discover what your policy covers is before making a claim.
What Happens If the Electricity Goes Off?
Wet and windy weather creates another risk that isn't necessarily connected to flooding.
Power cuts.
Strong winds can bring trees or branches onto electricity infrastructure, while storms can cause other network damage.
So ask another useful question:
Could we manage comfortably for several hours without mains electricity?
You don't need a bunker filled with emergency equipment.
A sensible household might simply have:
charged power banks;
torches;
spare batteries;
a battery radio;
warm clothing and blankets;
essential medication;
some food requiring little or no cooking;
drinking water;
important telephone numbers written down.
In England, Scotland and Wales, 105 is the number for reporting or obtaining information about power cuts. Government emergency-preparedness guidance recommends keeping useful numbers on paper rather than assuming that you will always be able to look everything up online.
That is an excellent example of resilience costing virtually nothing.
Solar Panels and Batteries Don't Automatically Mean Backup Power
This is particularly relevant to homes like mine that have invested heavily in solar generation and battery storage.
It is tempting to think:
"I've got solar panels and batteries, so power cuts don't matter."
Not necessarily.
Most grid-connected solar systems are designed to disconnect during a power cut. This anti-islanding protection is essential because electricity must not be exported onto lines that engineers believe are dead.
Battery systems vary too.
Some provide backup or emergency-power outputs.
Some can support selected circuits.
Some require additional switching equipment.
Some cannot run the house during a grid failure at all.
So if you have solar panels or home batteries, don't wait until a blackout to discover how yours works.
Ask your installer:
"Exactly what continues working when the grid fails?"
That is a much better question than simply asking how many kilowatt-hours your battery stores.
If You Really Are at Flood Risk, Consider Property-Level Protection
For higher-risk properties, resilience can become more substantial.
Possible measures include:
flood-resistant doors;
removable door barriers;
self-closing air bricks;
air-brick covers;
non-return valves;
raising electrical sockets;
water-resistant flooring;
locating valuable equipment above likely flood levels.
The Environment Agency notes that it is impossible to remove flood risk completely, but property flood-resilience measures can reduce the amount of water entering a building and reduce the damage and recovery time afterwards.
This isn't about trying to turn every house into a fortress.
It is about making improvements appropriate to the actual risk.
Never Put Yourself in Danger to Save the House
There is an important dividing line between preparation and emergency response.
Preparation should happen early.
If flooding is actually occurring, protecting life takes priority over protecting property.
Government advice is clear: do not walk, cycle or drive through flood water. It can conceal damaged roads, missing drain covers and debris, and it may be contaminated with sewage.
Similarly, if you need to isolate electricity during flooding, only do so when it is safe. Never touch electrical equipment or switches while standing in water.
A television, freezer or car can be replaced.
A person cannot.
The 30-Minute Wet-Weather Home Check
This weekend, why not spend half an hour walking around your property?
Check:
Roof — anything obviously loose or damaged?
Gutters — clear and securely attached?
Downpipes — connected and flowing properly?
Drains — clear of leaves and debris?
Garden — anything likely to become airborne?
Fences — loose panels or posts?
Trees — obviously dead or damaged branches requiring professional attention?
Water butts — working and connected correctly?
Doors and air bricks — possible routes for flood water?
Driveway — where does heavy rain flow?
Insurance — do you know what you're covered for?
Power cuts — torches and power banks available?
Documents — protected and backed up?
Flood risk — have you actually checked it?
That half-hour inspection may achieve more than buying a cupboard full of emergency equipment that you never learn how to use.
Resilience Isn't About Being Frightened
There is a danger that every discussion about extreme weather becomes frightening.
That isn't particularly helpful.
We cannot know exactly what this winter will bring. A three-month outlook is not a prediction that your house will flood or that a damaging storm will strike your street.
But uncertainty is actually an argument for sensible preparation, not against it.
The same preparations often have everyday benefits.
Clean gutters protect your house even without a flood.
A repaired roof wastes less money on emergency repairs.
Water butts conserve water during dry periods and provide temporary rainwater storage during wet ones.
Permeable gardens support wildlife as well as drainage.
Power banks are useful during ordinary outages.
Backed-up documents protect against theft, fire and computer failure as well as flooding.
Good insurance matters whatever causes the damage.
That is what I find increasingly interesting about household resilience.
It overlaps almost perfectly with many of the things we already discuss when talking about going green.
Prepare Before the Forecast Turns Red
The Environment Agency's warning shouldn't send six million households rushing out to buy sandbags.
It should prompt something much simpler.
Check your risk.
Then look around your property.
Clear the gutter.
Clear the drain.
Secure the garden furniture.
Check the roof.
Understand your insurance.
Protect important documents.
Charge the power banks.
Know where the stopcock is.
Find out what your solar battery actually does during a blackout.
And, if you discover that your property has a significant flood risk, make a proper flood plan and consider appropriate property-level protection.
None of these actions will stop a storm arriving.
But they may change what happens when it does.
We can't stop the storm arriving—but we can decide whether we prepare before or after it.
And preparation is almost always easier when the rain hasn't started yet.
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