Exploring Wales this summer?

Check if the area you are visiting is at risk of flooding before you go

Being close to the sea or a river can offer a great location for a holiday, but it could also mean that an area is at risk of flooding. Storms and heavy rain can dramatically change your holiday plans. Especially as summer showers can happen so quickly, and be localised. A thunderstorm can bring heavy rain and localised flooding to one area, but down the road you could still be enjoying the sun and see no flooding. There is some advice on how to prepare and stay safe at Visit Wales, and you can check your flood risk by postcode on our website.

Flood Warning Service - Keep your details up to date

If you’re registered to our free Flood Warning Service – make sure your contact details and preferences stay up to date. We recommend that you have registered at least one email address or mobile phone number. You can manage your account online, or you can call 0345 988 1188 or type talk 0345 602 6340. You can also contact us at befloodready@naturalresources.wales if you want paper copies of registration forms. There is more information online about how we issue warnings and you can also test your knowledge of the Flood Warning Service.

Spotlight: Community flood plans

The overall aim of a Flood Plan is, where possible, to help reduce the risk of harm to people and damage to property.

Working together as a community to develop and maintain a flood plan can have many benefits. It can:

• Provide coordination, support, and guidance to a community before a flood
• Help share local knowledge during a flood to assist the Emergency Services
• Help relay local knowledge, concerns, and issues to the relevant authorities before and after a flood

More information about Community Flood Plans is available on this new webpage.

Please visit the page and leave feedback, to let us know if the information is useful or if there’s something missing that would be helpful. We’ll regularly look at this feedback to improve this page.

New Community flood plan webpage on our website

Network events for flood volunteers

We arrange network events for flood volunteers across Wales. We haven’t met up for some time, but following the recent survey about events, we’re pleased to confirm that we are now planning events for early autumn this year.

Anyone who is a flood volunteer or has an interest is welcome to attend. We’ll be getting in touch soon with more details about the events. If you have any questions, please contact befloodready@naturalresources.wales

Flooding: Fact or Fiction

Fact: Collecting rainwater can help to reduce flood risk

If you’re spending time in your garden this summer, why not consider what you could do to help collect rainwater.

By getting a water butt in your garden, you could:

• use it to water your garden
• help to stop rainwater overwhelming drains and sewers, which can help to reduce the risk of surface water and sewerage flooding
• use it as a mini ‘leaky dam’ by keeping the tap open during heavy rain, to slow down how quickly water reaches drains and sewers, again reducing the risk of overwhelming the network. Slow the Flow have advice on how you can even modify it to make sure you keep a water supply for your garden

Photo credit: Tracey Dunford

These measures also help you to save water, which can help if we have a dry summer.

You can find more tips on how to save water and buy a water butt online at Welsh Water or Hafren Dyfrdwy. Or you buy one at most garden centres or DIY shops.

Fiction: ‘Flood risk’ is the likelihood of flooding happening

'Flood risk' is not just the likelihood of flooding; it also includes the possible damage a flood could cause. When we talk about 'flood risk', we are referring to a combination of two things:

• The likelihood of a flood happening  
• The impact or consequences that will result if flooding occurs

So increased flood risk may describe a range of different scenarios.

In our 5 day flood risk, we include an overall summary of the forecast, and the daily flood risk for each local authority in Wales. 

Below are two different examples of low flood risk:

Scenario A: There’s confidence that flooding will happen but we only expect there to be minor impacts. For instance, expecting roads or low-lying land to flood in the next few days.

Scenario B: There’s uncertainty if flooding will happen, but if it did, there could be significant impacts. An example of this is heavy rain and thunderstorms in summer. It isn’t possible to know if they will definitely happen, or exactly when and where, and if they did happen there could be flooding to properties.

Diagram displaying low flood risk as a combination of likelihood and potential impacts

Funding information

The latest Natural Resources Wales external funding bulletin is available to read. It includes details about funding available, which may be of interest to your community.

Resilient communities grant funding

We've launched a new £2million funding pot designed to bolster community resilience by harnessing the power of nature.

The Resilient Communities Grant Programme can provide 100% funding and applications are welcomed for amounts from £10,000 to £250,000. 

The funding will help deliver projects that give people opportunities for:

• improved mental and physical health
• learning new skills
• being part of safer communities
• more access to nature
• a better awareness of the impact of climate change
• involvement in making decisions about their natural environment
• participation in citizen science

You can register to join a webinar to be held on 11 July or read more about the grants here. 

Advice from other organisations

Met Office

As we head into the summer months, the prospect of sunshine and warmer temperatures increasingly dominates conversations around the UK, but what about the possibility of more severe summer weather? Thanks to the Met Office, there are simple steps that everyone can take to be prepared – no matter what the weather throws at you. Run in partnership with the Cabinet Office, WeatherReady - the Met Office preparedness initiative - aims to bring together up-to-date, expert advice from carefully selected organisations to help you prepare your home or business and take care of yourself, your family and neighbours. A range of advice articles can be found on the Met Office website including top tips and regional advice on flood preparedness. Find out more about what you can do to get yourself ready for summer weather or join the conversation online using #WeatherReady.

Suggestions

• What would you like to see in future issues of this newsletter?
• Is there something you’d like to know more about?
• Would you be willing to share your experiences of flooding or as a community volunteer?
• Get in touch if you missed any of our previous issues, and we can share them with you.

Send any suggestions, ideas, or questions to: befloodready@naturalresources.wales

NRW is not responsible for the content of other sites. We are providing this as a signpost to information, and not as a promotion of other organisations or companies. We believe the advice that they are sharing is helpful to everyone. Links to external sites may only have information available in English.

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