Demand for flood damage cleaning is predicted rise this winter following warnings of “unprecedented” bursts of rainfall this winter.
Businesses that do not take careful precautions against the threat of flooding triggered by heavy downpours could find their premises damaged of operations adversely affected.
Taking all precautions before the floods hit, while being ready to seek help from a flood cleaning and recovery specialist like CleanSafe Services, should be part of business contingency planning.
In a detailed study, published in the journal Nature Communications, the Met Office predicts there is a 1 in 3 chance of monthly rainfall records being broken in a region of England and Wales each winter.
Extreme weather event
The Met Office said standard observational statistics did not identify the significant risk of rainfall that, if it fell, could cost businesses £millions.
But by modelling changing weather patterns between 1981 and 2015, using its super computer, potential weather patterns emerged that would produce more rain than in 2014, when the last serious floods occurred.
The Met Office said there appeared to be a 7% chance of a monthly record extreme in the South East of England. There was a 34% chance of such an extreme event in one of the regions in England and Wales.
Flood damage cleaning experience
CleanSafe Services Managing Director Steve Broughton said: “It’s tempting to dismiss warnings like this. These record rainfall levels may not occur, but increasingly businesses cannot afford to tempt fate, especially if the risk is present each winter as the Met Office says.
“We have a great deal of experience of supporting businesses and organisations with emergency flood recovery cleaning and know only too well the physical as well as the emotional cost these floods cause.
“Taking precautions now can pay dividends in the future, whether that is to back up computer systems regularly, move business critical assets out of flood risk areas in buildings, or having a contingency plan for keeping operations going if the worst was to happen.
“Doing something as simple as having our contact details to hand, and starting a conversation now about how we can help if there is a cleaning emergency caused by flooding could pay dividends later.”
“We expect the odds to shorten on future rainfall extremes but the first stage to predict this is knowing the current odds – and this is what this new paper gives us.”
High cost of floods
The Met Office’s study takes account of natural variability in rainfall plus changes in the UK climate thought now to be caused by global warming.
The innovative research approach, dubbed the UNSEEN method, has been used as part of the Government’s National Flood Resilience Review (NFRR).
The storms of 2013-14 caused flooding in South East England, the South West, and in Yorkshire, in particular. The cost of flood damage clean-up and disruption in the Thames Valley alone was £1billion.
CleanSafe Services is a national emergency cleaning specialist, with specific expertise in flood damage cleaning and recovery. Through its sister company, WasteSafe Services, it also has access to unrivalled expertise in flood-related waste disposal.
