This week is the fifth anniversary of the 2000 floods in Yorkshire and the North East, and the Environment Agency is marking the event with the launch of a hard-hitting flood awareness campaign.

Autumn 2000 was one of the wettest on record and 1,661 properties were flooded in the region. However, an estimated 53,000 properties were protected by the Environment Agency’s flood defences including 20,000 in North Yorkshire and Teesside.

Since then the Environment Agency has spent an estimated £257 million in the region on protecting businesses and homes including:

A £9.3 million scheme in Malton and Norton which helps to protect the community from the River Derwent. Its highest level was recorded in 2000 when 169 properties were flooded and the new flood walls and embankments have given all properties in the town an improved level of protection.
A £14 million scheme in Selby and Barlby which suffered flooding from the River Ouse in autumn 2000 when some lower sections of existing flood defences were overtopped. The work is currently taking place and includes building new raised embankments and constructing sections of new walls which will protect 2,500 properties.
A £3.7 million project to protect 4 homes and 22 businesses in Stamford Bridge. Earth embankments and walls cover the entire length of the River Derwent through the village and took just over 12 months to complete.
But officers are warning that tackling flooding is more than just building defences and residents cannot afford to be complacent about the risks.

Flood risk manager Peter Holmes said: "Whilst we can reduce the effects of floods through awareness, education and investment in flood defences, we can never prevent them.

That is why we’re urging people to try to reduce the massive financial and emotional costs of flooding. So the message is, be prepared for flooding.

"There is a tendency for people to think ‘it will never happen to me.’ The fact is, it could, we just don’t know when. People in Yorkshire cannot afford to ignore the risks."

Environment Agency research shows that one third (34%) of people in flood risk areas had not checked whether their buildings and contents insurance covers flood damage and only 7% had found out how to get flood warnings. Two fifths (42%) admitted they would not know what to do in a flood.

In Yorkshire and the North East, around 262,000 properties are considered at risk from flooding – that represents around 14 per cent of the national total considered to be at risk.

Climate change means that extreme weather events will become more frequent and more dangerous. The Environment Agency is responding to the growing flood problems by developing a Flood Risk Management Strategy which looks at alternative ways of reducing flood risk.

Its priorities include reducing flood risk by looking at changes in land use, preventing inappropriate development in the flood plains and encouraging residents to take effective action to protect themselves.

The Environment Agency’s three steps to take to prepare for flooding:

Visit www.environment-agency.gov.uk/floodline or call our 24 hour Floodline on 0845 988 1188 to find out if you are at risk of flooding
Find out if flood warnings are available in your area.
Make sure you understand the flood warning codes so you know what to do when a flood warning is issued
If floods are imminent, people must:

Co-operate with emergency services and local authorities – you may be evacuated
Turn off gas, electricity and water supplies at the mains. Find out where these are well in advance of any flood
Put plugs into sinks and weigh them down with something heavy
Move sentimental items like photographs upstairs and think about storing them more safely in future in case you forget or don’t have time to move them during a flood
Move as many possessions upstairs as you can.
FACTFILE

Autumn 2000 was one of the wettest on record. It left the entire region’s river catchments saturated after 250 millimetres of rain fell over a two-week period between October 26 and November 8, 2000. This was equivalent to the average amount usually expected in the whole of October and November together.
The Environment Agency in Yorkshire and the North East has more than 2,000 kilometres of raised riverside flood defences.
Around 1,661 properties were flooded in the region yet 53,000 properties were protected by the Environment Agency’s flood defences.
The River Aire rose in places to levels higher than those seen in 1946 and the Derwent at Malton rose to the highest levels ever recorded.
Five million people in two million properties in England and Wales live in flood risk areas, yet despite this, Environment Agency research indicates that as many as two fifths (41%) of these people are still unaware of the threat.
Sea levels around the UK are now about ten centimetres higher than they were in 1900 and heavy winter rainfall events that occur every two years are expected to increase in intensity by between five and 20 per cent.