Flood Wardens

Do you want to help protect your community from flooding?

    Become a Flood Warden


    A poster with a rippling surface of a body of water reflecting something orange, forming the background. This is overlain by 5 different coloured large circles. The White circle in the top corner contains the Leicester City Council and Environment Agency logos. The large semi-transparent. light blue circle in the upper middle and left contain the the large bold text: 'Do you want to help your community? Become a Volunteer Flood Warden. The orange semi-transparent circle on the right of the poster contains the text: 'The Role: Help to raise awareness of flood issues, help your community to prepare for and respond to flooding, Share your local knowledge with authorities and emergency responders. The darker semi-transparent circle in the bottom left reads: 'How we will support you: Free training and PPE, Support in developing community incident response plans, Communications with EA flood duty officers, comprehensive handbook, networking with other flood wardens. The circle in the bottom right contains an image of two flood wardens, a man and a woman, wearing high visibility jackets looking at a river gauge board in a channel. At the bottom of the poster is the text 'For more information, please email floodresilience.eastmidlands@environment-agency.gov.uk . This is spelt f l o o d r e s i l i e n c e dot e a s t m i d l a n d s at symbol e n v i r o n m e n t dash a g e n c y dot g o v dot u k



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    What do Flood Wardens do?

    Flood Wardens are volunteers who are trained by the Environment Agency and the Lead Local Flood Authority (Leicester City Council) and can help the community before, during and after a flood by: 

    Before

    • Monitoring watercourses for obstructions and hazards, and reporting these to the Environment Agency 
    • Contributing to the creation of a community flood plan 
    • Helping to prepare the local community
    • Encouraging local residents and businesses to register for the free Flood Warning Service and ensure they understand what the different types of warnings mean.
    • Refer them to this webpage, in particular the section on 'Flood Preparedness and Resilience'

    During

    • Communicate the risk of flooding within the community
    • Help co-ordinate the enaction of the community flood plan (especially by supporting those who are most vulnerable)
    • Be the liaison between the community and the emergency services if they are undertaking their duties in the area
    • Monitoring the situation locally and reporting back to the Environment Agency and Local Authorities
    • Keeping residents informed of the ongoing situation 
    • Collect flood event information

    After

    • Assist in the post-flood clear up if required 
    • Continue to be available to act as a communication channel
    • Collect post-flood data and photos
    • Assist in the review of the community flood plan

     

     Activities that Flood Wardens do not carry out, include:

    • Putting themselves at risk or entering flood water 
    • Rescuing people or animals (this is the role of the emergency services) 
    • Unblocking watercourses (this must be done by the authorities) 
    • Closing roads or diverting traffic 

    Flood Wardens, ideally, are not at a high risk of flooding themselves, as supporting the community should be their main focus - Check the long term flood risk for an area in England - GOV.UK + Aurora.

     

    If you are interested in volunteering as a Flood Warden, please contact the Environment Agency at floodresilience.eastmidlands@environment-agency.gov.uk  

    Separately, if you are interested in helping to maintain your local watercourse and learning how this can reduce the risk of flooding, see our section on community maintenance guidance.

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