Important information from HCC re storm Henk. How to report flooding & fallen trees.

Amber severe weather warning issued for strong winds

The Met Office has issued an Amber severe weather warning today (Tuesday 2 January) between 10am and 8pm for wind, as Storm Henk brings high winds and significant rainfall to southern regions of the UK, including Hertfordshire. The strongest gusts of between 50mph and 60mph are expected between 3pm and 6pm today.

Our Highways Teams and Hertfordshire Fire and Service are ready to respond and we have alerted partners across the Local Resilience Forum and asked them to consider potential impacts and messaging for their own organisations.

HCC colleagues have been asked to take care when travelling to and from work and speak to their line manager if they have any concerns, we are also pointing them towards our Be prepared in case of an incident or emergency guidance, which includes recommendations such as saving the telephone numbers for your line manager and the HCC staff information line.

We have scheduled social media posts to go out from today on our Highways social media accounts and will re-share these on our corporate HCC accounts advising residents to be careful when they are out and about, particularly during the evening rush-hour and to check weather forecasts. We are also sharing information on how to report fallen trees and flooding. We have included some additional detail below to help you respond to questions you may get from residents.

We are closely monitoring the situation, particularly with groundwater levels already being so high and will provide a further update tomorrow. In the meantime, please do not hesitate to get in touch, should you require any further information on our response.

Very best wishes

Alex Woodman

Chair of the Local Resilience Forum for Hertfordshire, Executive Director & Chief Fire Officer, Community Protection

Useful information for members on reporting flooding and falling trees.

We would like to remind members of the kind of responses they might like to give when speaking to residents in their areas who are asking questions about how to prepare for bad weather:

What should residents do if they see flood water on the network?

Any significant flooding on our roads (i.e. not property) should be reported on the HCC fault reporting system (www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/faultreporting) under the 'flooding and drainage' section. Road, footway and subway flooding can be reported on this page. Once we have received a report, we will inspect flooded sites as soon as we can to see if drains need to be cleared. We will prioritise clearing drains based on risk to safety and the type of road. We will put flood warning signs in place at affected sites to warn drivers and other road users of the potential hazard.

What should residents do if their property floods?

If a property is flooding then this should be reported on the on the HCC fault reporting system (www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/faultreporting) under the 'flooding and drainage' section but users must select the 'Property damaged by flooding' option. Once reported a crew will attend the property/site (timeframes will be dependent on what has been reported) and mitigate any immediate hazard (if possible to do so).

What is action is HCC taking to address flooding?

We have a drainage clearance programme in place that sees us clear approximately 188,000 drains every year. When flooding is reported, we will respond as quickly as possible, prioritising action based on safety, risk to property and road location. Where possible urgent clearance or repairs will be carried out within a matter of hours or on the same day. However, removing a blockage is not always possible immediately, so in those instances we will put flood warning boards in place to alert road users and consider other measures such as temporary road closures. You can find out more about drain cleaning on our website Drain cleaning | Hertfordshire County Council.

How to report fallen trees

We are also advising that any instances of fallen trees be reported on the fault reporting system at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/faultreporting and any emergency situation should be reported to the police.