Birmingham resilience get us prepared for predicted floods

• Feb. 19 by Rebekah Douglas (0)

The Environment Agency and Birmingham Resilience are teaming up to host a flood awareness drop in session for local people who are curious about how to cope in flooded conditions.

The aim of the session is to prepare locals for such emergencies and how to reduce the risk.

The session, set to take place on 27^th February 2010 at Hall green library, is the Birmingham resilience group’s answer to monitoring a potential rise in floods in local areas. The environment agency is also on the case to inform people about how to deal with the crisis of flooding.

Ed Witton of Birmingham resilience said:

“The session is being held because we know the floods are going to happen, so we are just rolling up our sleeves up and getting locals to take responsibility and understand what preparation needs to be done.”

The Environment agency website states that over 5 million people in England and Wales live and work in properties that are at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.

The sudden lock down and preparation for flooding leads us to wonder to what extent climate change is affecting the situation as it recognised as ‘is now widely accepted as one of the greatest challenges we all face.’

We are already aware of the huge changes to our climate with average winter rainfall increase by 18%, and by up to 30% more on the wettest day. However floods won’t be an issue all year round as average summer temperatures are said to increase by 3.7°C/6.66ºF and average summer rainfall to reduce by 20%. It’s clear that 2010 will continue to experience severe weather as climate change closes in on us.

Be Birmingham and Birmingham City Council are involved in trying to encourage the community to solve the problem while Birmingham resilience and the environment agency will be there to advise and inform through the changes we may have to endure.

If you are interested in gaining advice on what to do in the case of a flood pop down to Hall green library Saturday 27^th Feb between 11am – 3pm for an insight.

Visit Birmingham resilience for more information.