Environment Agency launches Flood Action Campaign

The Environment Agency is urging the British public to prepare for extreme weather events as it launches its Flood Action Campaign.

A pattern of severe flooding has emerged over the past decade. Extreme weather events have become more commonplace – a result of the UK’s changeable climate. And Met Office data has now revealed 17 record-breaking rainfall months or seasons since 1910. Astonishingly, nine have occurred since the turn of the millennium. As sea levels rise, this trend looks set to continue.

Hence the Environment Agency’s Flood Action Campaign, designed to target those least aware of the risks associated – oblivious 18 to 24-year-olds. Through social media engagement and online advertising, the Environment Agency will encourage young Britons to check the flood risk where they are, subscribe to free warnings and prepare for the worst in the event of a flood.

“Climate change is likely to mean more frequent and intense flooding. Floods destroy – lives, livelihoods, and property,” said Sir James Bevan, Chief Executive of the Environment Agency.

“Our flood defences reduce the risk of flooding, and our flood warnings help keep communities safe when it threatens. But we can never entirely eliminate the risk of flooding. Checking your flood risk is the first step to protecting yourself, your loved ones and your home.”

The threat of flooding is now very real – it is currently listed as one of the UK’s major civil emergencies. Previously, Met Office research revealed a 1 in 3 chance of a new monthly rainfall record in at least one region of England or Wales each winter.

According to Professor Adam Scaife, who heads-up this area of research at the Met Office: “The Met Office supercomputer was used to simulate thousands of possible winters, some of them much more extreme than we’ve yet witnessed. This gave many more extreme events than have happened in the real world, helping us work out how severe things could get.”

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