Flooding - Guidance

• A personal emergency plan will ensure that your family and neighbours know what to do and who is responsible for performing which tasks in the event of an emergency:
  • Where can you obtain weather reports and warnings?
  • Who is responsible if you are on holiday or otherwise absent? Are there vulnerable people, such as children or people with disabilities, or animals in the house that need to be evacuated safely from the danger zone?
  • The water and electricity supplies may fail: Put together emergency supplies, including sufficient drinking water, batteries and food.
  • Where can you turn the electricity/gas off?
• Install a warning app (see above) on your smartphone to ensure you receive flood and weather reports and warnings in good time.
• Familiarise yourself with the flood hazard maps for your federal state. The maps show which areas may be affected by floods and storm surges (floodplains) and what water levels (flood heights) can be expected.
• All those who may be affected by floods are obliged to take all possible and reasonable precautions against the adverse effects of floods and to minimise resulting damage.
• Find out whether your locality has a flood alert plan. Familiarise yourself with the flood alert plan for your locality. The flood alert levels are linked to specific measures that may be of direct relevance to you.
• What action must be taken at which flood level? Familiarise yourself with the meaning of the different flood alert levels.
• Emergency savings and insurance cover can help if heavy rain causes damage despite all precautionary and protection measures. Do you have private natural hazard insurance (in German: Elementarschaden) for your residential property?
• If property or buildings are damaged as a result of flooding you will have to inform your insurance company. In order to submit such a damage claim, you must have photographed your (intact) property in advance or recorded it on video.

• Make sure your personal emergency plan includes care and evacuation of the people who are sick or need help. Think about your pets, too.
• Discuss with your neighbours or others how you can communicate if the telephone or mobile phone lines go down.
• Decide with your neighbours on appropriate emergency and danger signs.

What to do at short notice

• Secure important documents and items of sentimental value.
  • Pack important documents, such as insurance policies, in a water resistant and fireproof document box or bag and store them somewhere safe or back them up digitally.
  • Documents and objects of sentimental value are difficult to replace after a flood. They should therefore be kept safe from water damage. Stow them in your emergency preparedness backpack for use in the event of an evacuation.
• Switch off the power and heating in good time.
• Check the anchorage of your heating oil or gas tank
  • Check the existing measures. In an extreme emergency, you can fill your heating oil tank with clean water to create a counterweight. However, you will later have to dispose of the water-oil mixture at your own cost.
  • You can also weigh the tank down with ballast. However, it is always preferable to take proper precautions and secure the heating oil tank rather than to be forced into such emergency measures. Gas tanks cannot be filled with clean water; however, ballast can be applied to create a counterweight which prevents the tank from lifting up.
• Seal windows and doors against flooding
  • Install the pre-prepared mobile flood protection systems (e.g. stoplogs, protective devices for basement windows). If you have no such systems, seal your windows, doors, light wells and drainage openings with shuttering boards, waterproof plywood panels and silicone. Alternatively, you can also stack sandbags in front of room access points.
• Erect flood barriers
  • Barriers can be erected to keep the water away from your building. Use sandbags for this purpose.
  • Check that backflow protection devices, such as wastewater lifting plants and backwater flap valves in the basement, are fully functional.
• Prepare for a possible evacuation
  • Stock up on food and drink.
  • Basic amenities (emergency accommodation, mobile kitchens, etc.) will usually be provided by your local authority.
  • Information on safe routes and assembly points as well as on the location of emergency shelters can be obtained from the local fire brigade or police in the event of an evacuation.

How to prepare long in advance

• Secure important documents, belongings, and hazardous materials
  • Check whether your rooms and facilities offer sufficient protection against flood risks. Is it possible to place valuable items or sensitive equipment (such as heating or electrical installations) in secure rooms? Bear in mind that you should store paint, lacquer, wood preservatives and other water-polluting substances in rooms that are inaccessible to flood water.
• Familiarise yourself with the flood hazard maps for your federal state.
  • The maps show which areas may be affected by floods and storm surges (floodplains) and what water levels (flood depths) can be expected.
  • Educational handbook Hochwasserschutzfibel: Objektschutz und bauliche Vorsorge (Flood Protection: Property protection and structural precautions – German only): This educational handbook is expressly not intended as a set of regulatory provisions, such as building regulations or standards. All the information is intended to help people take informed precautions before, during and after a flood in order to avoid or minimise damage, as set out in Section 5 of the Federal Water Act (Wasserhaushaltsgesetz, WHG).
• Check the water-sealing measures in your building
  • Walls, earth banks or other outdoor barriers will keep water away from your home. Sealing measures applied to the building itself are, however, simpler and more cost-effective than such barriers.
  • Check the backflow protection measures in your building regularly.
• Permanent protection systems
  • Check the backwater flap valve in your building regularly.
  • In high flood-risk areas, it makes sense to install permanent protection systems. Pressure-proof and flood-resistant doors or windows are suitable for this purpose. Note that not all systems are capable of withstanding all water pressures. The higher the water level at a door or window (flood height), the greater the water pressure. You should therefore take the maximum permissible flood height into account when purchasing doors and windows. The manufacturer usually specifies this in terms of height above the window sill (bottom edge of the window).
  • For low flood heights, walling around light wells can also help.
  • Floods can overload the sewage system. Depending on your individual situation, your basement should therefore be equipped with backwater flap valves, gate valves or wastewater lifting plants. These hold back the water or channel it into the sewage system, as required. Obtain further information about this from a specialist plumbing, heating and air conditioning company.
  • Find out about the possibility of emergency flooding for your building.
  • Seek advice from flood protection experts (e.g. from the Flood Competence Centre HKC e.V.).
• Secure your heating oil system
  • Rising water can lift an unsecured heating oil system out of its anchorage and cause environmental damage. Note that the property owner is liable in the event of damage caused by leaking heating oil.
• Seal your building to prevent the penetration of groundwater.
  • In areas where the ground is permeable, the groundwater can rise during a flood. If it presses against the base and walls of the house, buoyancy forces are created that can exert uplift pressure on your building. Emergency flooding with clear water can create the necessary counterweight and prevent damage to the building structure.
  • Consult a specialist planner, such as an engineering or architectural firm, to determine the safe buoyancy level and the height and volume of the water required for emergency flooding.
• Check your insurance policies.
  • Flood damage is not covered in all residential building, household content and liability insurance policies. Make sure that weather-related damage and damage caused by overflowing bodies of water is also covered. This is usually offered in the form of optional extended natural hazards cover (in German: Naturgefahrenversicherung) or natural hazard insurance for residential building and household content insurance (in German: Elementarschadenversicherung). Such supplementary cover can only be taken out in combination with either of these two types of insurance policies.

• Pay attention to local radio announcements and notifications issued by the police, fire brigade and water protection authorities.
• Follow the latest weather reports, flood warnings and forecasts issued on the radio, the Internet and other media.
• Move to higher ground.
• Seek shelter and stay away from floodplains, danger zones and hollows. Avoid underpasses.
• Technical protection systems, such as dams and dykes, must be monitored in the case of a flooding incident and only accessed by specially trained personnel.
• Avoid the temptation to satisfy your curiosity: "flood tourism" can hinder the rapid delivery of vital aid and jeopardises people's safety.

• Follow the latest weather reports, warnings and forecasts issued on the radio and Internet.
• Remove vehicles in good time from garages, underground car parks and areas at risk while it is still safe to do so. Park them on higher ground. Keep rescue and escape routes clear.
• Do not drive on roads that are already flooded: they may already be washed out and there is a risk of injury from invisible obstacles. There is also a danger from manhole covers which have been swept away leaving open manholes.

To check the risks in your area, see the Hazards & Risks section of the Natural Hazards Portal.

Here you can find more information: