Help protect your home and recover faster after flooding

Free CIWEM training for homeowners

With well-over a thousand properties flooded in the midlands by Storm Babet and Storm Ciarán bearing down on the south of the country this week, CIWEM is waiving the fee on an exclusive 10-hour training package for people affected.

Getting flooded is often devastating. Despite its extensive flood defences, the UK – in the firing line of Atlantic storms – is prone to flooding that can happen anywhere. And with our weather getting more extreme that risk will only rise.

Taking more control of your flood risk and learning ways to respond can help reduce the disruption and anguish of getting flooded if defences either aren’t there or are overwhelmed. That’s why at CIWEM with partners RAB Consulting, Sedgwick and The Environmental Design Studio we are offering a free cohort of training to members of the public.

Understand how you can reduce your risk of getting flooded and how to prepare for if the worst should happen. Also know how to deal with insurers so if you need repairs, they are done in a way that makes your home more resilient to future floods.

The foundation of our property flood resilience (PFR) training is an accessible, non-technical course explaining what it’s like to get flooded, what equipment can help keep water out of your home (often-used sandbags offer minimal protection) and what modifications can make recovery far easier after a flood.

Insurers are increasingly offering a ‘build back better’ scheme driven by reinsurer Flood Re, offering subsidies to help you repair your home in a way that can withstand future flooding better. The course includes details of how this works and how you can access this money.

CIWEM’s learning and organisational development director Darren Eckford said: “There is a methodology for increasing the resilience of your property to flooding. It is more accessible than most people realise and allows you to take direct action against the impacts of flooding when you may well be feeling at your most vulnerable.”

“This training is already available as an introduction to flood professionals and we hope that making it available to people starting to recover from, or getting prepared for flooding can empower them to increase their home’s recoverability and decrease the flood impact in a meaningful way.”

For more information and to sign-up, please click here.

Image credit: Mary Long-Dhonau