2 minute read
Flood Protection
Check your flood protection now.
Flooding events often cause devastation across entire regions. Recently the flooding in New South Wales highlights the havoc flooding can cause, disrupting both family and business life.
Expert data shows 10 per cent of Capricorn Mutual Members are at high risk of experiencing a flood event.
Now is an ideal time to plan, prepare, and protect yourself, your family and your business.
Here are some basic precautions you can take.
• Get a copy of your local council’s flood plan. It’ll help you identify the areas most likely to experience problem flooding and it will show evacuation routes and relief centres. Develop an evacuation plan for your home and business, and share this plan with your family and staff.
• Subscribe to receive emergency warning notifications from your local emergency services and authorities.
• Ensure you have a well-stocked and waterproof emergency kit and a list of emergency telephone numbers in a prominent position in your workshop.
• Identify expensive equipment and electronic equipment that would be damaged by flooding and consider your options for moving them to higher ground if you receive a warning a flood is coming. (For example, to a mezzanine floor.) • Check your flood coverage with Capricorn Risk Services.
Flood coverage may, depending on your circumstances, offer coverage for business contents as well as protection against interruption to your business caused by flooding.
Flooding causes an average of $377 million in damage across Australia each year. In New Zealand, the Northland floods in July alone affected more than 2500 homes and 360 businesses, with insurers paying out more than NZ$37 million in claims.
Only four per cent of Capricorn Mutual Members currently carry flood protection, despite 10 per cent being in high-risk areas.
In Australia, most floods occur between November and February and take three forms: slow onset flooding, where the water level rises and stays high for weeks; quick onset, which typically happens around river headwaters and areas with steep topography; and flash flooding after a big storm or dam burst. Those with businesses on river flood plains – like those of the Hawkesbury, Hunter, Clarence, Brisbane, Fitzroy, Yarra, Murray, Derwent and Collie rivers – are particularly at risk.
In New Zealand, flooding can also be exacerbated by snowmelt, although heavy rain is the usual cause of flooding.
