“I won’t flood, I live at the top of a hill!”

11th April 2018

In the flood industry, we often hear people say “I won’t flood, I live at the top of a hill”. Unfortunately this is just not true, but the reason for this thinking is because people generally believe that flooding only comes from rivers, the sea or is caused by excess overland surface water during a rainfall event.

The hill where I took this picture this morning is quite long and is approx. a 1:20/1:25 gradient (apologies the image is a bit dull but today is another grey day as winter continues to refuse to abate).

Guess what………………. the property I’m stood outside floods.

The source? The sewer. Yes I know, yuck.

During a prolonged downpour, the sewer fills with rainwater to a point where it is overloaded and spills out on this property, flooding the building and land immediately surrounding it, causing £000’s of damage and massive inconvenience to the business.

A (not so) great example of an often experienced yet infrequently mentioned source of flooding.

Thanks for reading.
Ray Moulds