Over the last 15 years Cricket has had to endure eight major weather events that have led to extensive flooding and the data suggests that this will continue to be a pattern.
During this time the ECB Facilities team has supported over 1000 clubs recover and provided emergency funding support to many as well.
With that support in mind there are some practical steps to consider whether your club is affected by the current weather or not.
There are two sets of actions:
- Reacting to a flooding event
- Planning and risk management
Firstly, if you are unfortunate and you are experiencing a flooding event there is a short list of things to consider.
Whilst this may seem strange the best advice is to not rush into any repair work. It is important to assess the risk to life before doing anything. It may be that time is needed to allow the emergency services, the Environment Agency or others access to the site before it is deemed safe for you. Whatever the circumstances this is all better done once the waters have receded.
A common question is “where do we start?”. Our advice is to focus on the ground and pitches first as these may take the longest to recover and if the flood is in the summer, the ground will be the greatest limitation on returning to play
It is natural for us all to want to muck in and move material and sediment off the ground but there are risks if there are “nasties” in the sediment and potential financial penalties for putting it back into watercourses. There is a useful guide on this available on the ECB website, on this page here.
Quite often there are costs that are not covered by insurance, or the availability of funding is an issue. ECB has an emergency fund to support clubs who need it and over 20 years’ experience of advising club on technical and practical matters.
Secondly, If you are not currently flooded assess the risk when it is safe to do so.
Flooding comes in more forms than just our water courses and tides. Groundwater flooding, flash flooding and sewer flooding are all possible risks. It is surprising how many times over the years people have said “we have never been flooded before”.
Once you have assessed what type of flooding may occur look at what you can do to reduce the risk by thinking about where the water will come from, what may be in its path and to what extent flooding will affect it.
There are plenty of potential solutions out there like low-cost drain caps and door barriers that may help but putting valuable machinery and goods above the water line is the first and best plan to action.
If you have insurance some providers will insist on this type of work and mitigation plan being actioned.
Should your club want any support please contact facilities@ecb.co.uk to receive further assistance.