Floods

Floods can affect buildings and traffic, but also pose a danger to human health.
During floods, emergency services may need to concentrate on saving life, health and essential services. So you may not get help if, for example, your basement floods. You can get advice from your local emergency services on how to protect yourself and your home. 

Before

• Check what your home insurance policy says about damage caused by flooding.

• Produce an evacuation plan and give some thought to what you need to take with you and where you should go.
• Keep in contact with your neighbours. You may need to help each other.
• Park your car at an elevated location.
• Seal cellar windows and ventilation openings.
• Create a temporary barrier made of sand or earth – it could prevent a minor flood.

Just before

• Move furniture and electrical appliances higher up in the house, or place them on some kind of raised surface.
• Take photos of the rooms in the house to show to the insurance company if required.
• Monitor news reports in the media.
• Keep your mobile phone fully charged.
• Block off floor drains and toilet seats using sandbags or similar. If the drains become flooded, water can find its way into the house this way.
• Turn off the electricity using the main power switch.

During

• Avoid walking or driving through flooded areas. It can take just half a metre of rushing water to pull you over or cause your car to drift away.
• Stay on high ground where you can be picked up by rescuers if you have nowhere to escape because of flooding.
• In case of an emergency, call 112!

After

• Contact your insurance company as soon as possible.
• Make a list of the damages and document them carefully by taking photographs and videos.
• Ask an electrician to check that it is safe to turn on the power if you have had flooding at home.

• Wait to drink the tap water until your municipality has announced that it is drinkable. 

• Vent the moisture out by opening windows and doors.

Note! In areas with regulated rivers, the municipality will inform the public about how to act if there is a dam break.  

Source: Halmstad municipality