We recently published a guide to marina and boat yard safety essentials. In this post we will focus on flood prevention for marinas. We will cover some tips on how to prepare for floods, along with some advice on how you can best protect your property in the event of a flood.
Understanding The Flood Risks For Your Marina
Any business that operates on or near water should put measures in place to withstand and recover from all kinds of floods.
Common Sources of Floods
First, you need to understand the possible sources of floods:
- Adverse Weather – Storms at sea can lead to tidal surges that could overwhelm your facilities. Heavy rain on land could block drainage systems and cause rivers to burst their banks.
- Water Run-Off – Soil will naturally absorb a certain amount of water. But if soil gets saturated after a period of heavy rain, or as a result of melting ice or snow, then it can lead to standing water and flash floods. This is a greater risk in urban areas, where excessive concrete means there is little soil to absorb the water.
- Escape of Water – A flood at a marine may not necessarily start with rising water levels. A burst pipe in your facilities, for example, could also lead to costly damages.
- System Failures – Systems put into place to manage water levels, such as dams, drainage systems, and levees, may fail if they are not maintained correctly.
Preparing For Floods At Your Marina
There are resources that can give you advance warning of weather conditions that could result in flooding:
- Flood Hub – The Flood Hub uses maps from the Environmental Agency to provide five-day flood risk forecasts, along with longer-term risk forecasts.
- UK Government Flood Warnings – You can sign up for flood alerts by call, text, or email.
Flood Defences For Your Marina
Invest in infrastructure, such as:
- Breakwaters
- Flood walls
- Catch basins
- Planting trees to act as effective natural breakwaters. As we pointed out above, soil is much more effective at withstanding heavy rains than concrete.
If you do not have the space or the budget to invest in your marina’s flood defence infrastructure, then you could invest in deployable flood defences. These may include:
- Sandbags
- Temporary flood barriers.
- Emergency flood protection equipment for your marina structures
Make sure anyone who stores their boats at your marina is aware of the risks of rising flood levels. Enforce rules for how people should store their boats when not in use, and how they should secure them to prevent them from drifting away and causing damage in the event of a storm.
Create a Flood Plan and Introduce Staff Training
Your flood plan should outline:
- Steps everyone onsite should take in the event of a flood
- Procedures for getting themselves to safety
- Steps your staff should take to mitigate the potential damage
- How to protect your most valuable equipment
Remember that the road access to your marina or boatyard may be cut-off or compromised by rising water levels. So as part of your initial risk assessment, identify potential alternative routes to safety.
To make sure your staff are trained on what to do in a flood, you should:
- Take the time to share your flood plan with all marina staff
- Add your flood plan to your employee induction process
- Ensure staff have periodic refresher training
If you are relying on deployable flood defences as part of your flood plan, you should also brief staff on how to rapidly and effectively deploy this equipment when necessary.
Are You Covered For Flood Damage?
Finally, it is important to ensure that your marine insurance policy gives you full cover for flood damage, and other related expenses.
For total peace of mind, your policy should include:
- Escape of water cover. You may already have cover for flooding caused by heavy rains and tidal surges. But as we pointed out above, some floods are caused by burst pipes and other system failures. Read your policy wording to ensure that you are fully covered for any type of flood, no matter how it started.
- Business interruption cover. You may be covered for damages to your marine premises and its contents. But make sure you get dedicated business interruption insurance, which can cover your marine or boatyard overheads for as long as it takes for you to recover from the flooding damage.
Maritime Insurance for Marines and Boatyards
Everard Insurance Brokers are the specialist marine trading division of accredited Lloyd’s brokers James Hallam Limited.
We can help you ensure you have the insurance you need to cover your marine and boatyard for all flood risk. We can also provide essential risk management advice to help you ensure you are prepared for floods and other potential setbacks.
Find out more about our dedicated marine insurance services.