It's important to make sure your employees, customers and visitors are safely evacuated from flooded areas in your business. If it is not safe to go outside, stay inside unless advised to evacuate by the emergency services.

For immediate help, use our emergency contact numbers. When you are able, report flooding online so we can investigate it.

Report flooding online

• Do not enter the building if it is flooded.
• If you have a flood plan, put this into action.
• Contact suppliers for alternative delivery locations or cancellations.
• Notify your customers.
• Work from home or alternative workspace as arranged in your business plan.
• Turn off gas, electricity and water if you are in the building.
• Remove any business-critical documents and secure your premises.

Surface water flooding

Surface water flooding, pluvial flooding, flash flooding, cloudburst and storm runoff are all often used to describe flooding that can occur after a heavy downpour.

The rain hits the ground quicker than it can drain or flow away. When very heavy rain falls on hard surfaces drainage and sewers are often overwhelmed.

This sort of flooding is difficult to predict, it often happens quickly with fast flowing water that could pose a risk to life. It is also more likely to happen during intense summer storms but can occur any time of year.

Water builds up and develops the potential to flood properties. In some places, it forms isolated puddles in ground depressions and in others it accumulates in valleys and flows downhill towards rivers. Typically, surface water flood events have localised effects, impacting properties in close proximity to where the rain fell and for a short amount of time.

However, some surface water flooding can be geographically extensive and remain for a long period of time. Water can build up in local depressions almost anywhere, thereby potentially affecting a far larger proportion of the land's surface and many more properties than river flooding.

Whilst you can never fully mitigate the risk of flooding, protecting your business can play a major part in reducing the flooding impact.

The Environment Agency offers advice and practical steps to protect your business in 'Would your business stay afloat?'.

You can also check if your business is at risk of flooding by calling Floodline on 0345 988 1188 (24 hours).

Preparing for flooding

Checklist for small businesses

• Make sure you have flooding insurance in place. Take a look at this directory of insurers, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and Flood Re.
• Produce flood safety information for staff including an emergency contact list.
• Create a digital list of important contacts such as Floodline, your local authority, insurance details etc.
• Purchase flood protection products such as sandbags.
• Sign up for Flood alerts from gov.uk.
• Create a flood plan for your business including alternative workspaces.
• Make sure your files are backed up by offsite providers or in the cloud. If you have paper files, keep them off ground level and make copies of important documents to store in a safe location.
• Keep an emergency kit in an accessible place and a grab bag with a copy of your flood and important documents. including your insurance documents.
• Make sure you know how to turn off your utilities.

After a flood

Small businesses

• Only return to your premises when it is safe to do so. Remember your business may need to be inspected by your utility company before power and water are re-connected.
• Contact your insurance company. Don't throw away damaged items until you have checked with them. If your business doesn't have insurance, the National Flood Forum can offer help and support on 01299 403055.
• Take photographs to document damage and record the floodwater height.
• Contact your customers and suppliers to let them know about the disruption to your business.