UP to 2,000 homes in Thurrock are at risk of a once-in-30-years flood and Thurrock Council is consulting on its flood strategy and advising people to check whether their home is one of those at risk.
Cllr Gerard Rice, portfolio holder for public protection, said: “I know that when I was told about this, the first thing I did was to go online to find out if my home was one of them.
“I’d advise everybody to do the same.”
He added: “There are also some tips about what householders can do for themselves to protect their homes and make sure they, their family and their possessions stay as safe as possible.
“The council is also carrying out work to counter the possibility of floods. We’ll never be able to ensure every home is safe every day for the next century and more, but we can and do take measures to reduce the dangers as far as possible.”
The Environment Agency has maps of areas at risk of flooding – from rivers and sea, surface water and reservoirs – available through the council’s website. They can be zoomed in to a scale of 1:10,000, enough to see specific roads.
The council’s site – under the Environment and preparing for emergencies sections – offers advice to people whose homes are at risk, including registering with Floodline, the Environment Agency-run warning system.
If the worst happens people are advised to:
Put flood boards, polythene and sandbags in place;
Turn off electricity, water and gas supplies;
Move furniture and electrical items to safety;
Make a list now of what can be moved away from the risk
Roll up carpets and rugs
Unless you have time to remove them hang curtains over rods
Move sentimental items to safety
Put important documents in polythene bags and move to safety
In an effort to reduce the risks, Thurrock Council is working more closely with partners to co-ordinate maintenance activities to reduce risk of culvert and drain blockages; reviewing planning applications to ensure new developments are not increasing flood risk and where possible reducing risk overall; investigating flood incidents to see what actions can be taken to address the cause and reduce the impact in future; identifying flood alleviation options for Stanford-le-Hope; and producing an integrated flood strategy for Tilbury to produce a plan to address flood risk from all sources there.
Cllr Rice added: “Our public consultation into our first Local Flood Risk Management Strategy started on Monday (3 August) and runs for six weeks.
“It is available online through the council’s Have my say section and paper copies are available in the council’s libraries.
