Flood Reporting, Recovery and Resilience

Environment Agency

From: Flood Wessex <floodwessex@environment-agency.gov.uk>

Subject: Dorset Flood Warden Update: Flood Mary Recording

Date: 6 March 2026 at 16:01:14 GMT

To: Flood Wessex <floodwessex@environment-agency.gov.uk>

Dear Flood Wardens and Town and Parish Clerks,

With many communities having experienced flooding across Wessex since Storm Chandra, we were pleased to have leading expert, Flood Mary, Mary Dhonau, at last month’s Lunch and Learn session where she shared her extensive first-hand experience of having a home flood, together with the first steps of recovery and looking at flood resilience measures for your home or business.

This session was recorded and can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/J6TjOIPHk1I

PLEASE share this link with those in your community who could find this great session helpful in their flood recovery journey. It could be posted on the town or parish website, newsletters, community social media pages or via local community or message groups.

Flood Mary has some great guides and useful information, including:

The Flood Recovery Guide - https://floodmary.com/help-and-resources/after-a-flood/
Advice and guidance to help those who have flooded with the initial stages of recovery.
New Property Flood Resilience (PFR) Directory - https://floodmary.com/attention-introducing-the-new-property-flood-resilience-pfr-directory/
A directory packed with clear, trusted information about practical Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures, from keeping water out to helping your home recover more quickly.

We have also attached a simple Recovering from Flooding leaflet with links and guidance to help those affected by recent flooding, including:

Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures
Flood Re and Build Back Better – flood insurance and the additional £10k you could be entitled to, when making a claim, for property flood resilience measures
Sign up to receive flood warnings and MetOffice weather warnings
Why and where to report flooding
Useful Contacts of flood risk management agencies and other agencies

PLEASE share these links and leaflets with your community. The leaflet can be printed and links and leaflets can be posted on the town or parish website, newsletters, community social media pages or via local community or message groups. If you need help printing these leaflets, please contact us at floodwessex@environment-agency.gov.uk and we will see how we can assist.

With river and particularly groundwater levels finally starting to drop, we are starting the process of planning our recovery work including community drop ins for areas affected by recent flooding. With so many communities affected by flooding, we will hold drop ins in hub locations and we will be in contact with flood wardens and town and parish councils in the coming weeks as these are arranged and provide promotional leaflets to share with your communities. These recovery drop in sessions are jointly hosted by the Environment Agency, Local Authority and Water Company and provide an opportunity to come and speak to experts who are keen to gather information and data from flood events to help with any mitigation planning, whilst sharing advice and guidance about Flood Resilience measures, being aware, planned and prepared for any future flood events. Helpful guides, information and leaflets will also be available. We will provide updates via our Dorset & Wiltshire Groundwater Flooding 2026 website.

Upcoming Lunch & Learn:

FloodRe - Thursday 19 March 12:30pm with Emma Holroyde from Flood Re

Learn how this reinsurance scheme works to help householders at risk of flooding and Build Back Better scheme to supporting property flood resilience in the event of a claim

We have a new link (below) to join all the online sessions. You can join us by clicking the MS teams link below at 12:30pm on the day:

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/33637107959074?p=vGDXnol7urFNsnoRNm

Meeting ID: 336 371 079 590 74

Passcode: RE9s3Ws9

Dial in by phone

+44 20 3321 5273,,773832712# United Kingdom, City of London

Find a local number

Phone conference ID: 773 832 712#

Below you can find the links to recordings of previous lunch & learn sessions: