Free flood warnings to be offered to EE customers in Staffordshire
In a first for England, the Environment Agency has teamed up with digital communications company EE to pilot a new scheme to send flood warnings to mobile phone users.
From 25 March, EE customers registered in flood risk areas in Staffordshire will receive messages from the Environment Agency’s Floodline Warnings Direct service, giving people valuable time to prepare. If successful, this pilot scheme will be rolled out across the country.
Since 2010 the Floodline Warnings Direct service has enabled the Environment Agency to automatically register and send warnings to 600,000 homes and businesses’ landline numbers through telephone providers. However, this will be the first time that flood warnings will be issued directly through a mobile phone provider.
Dan Perlet, EE’s Director of Corporate Affairs, said:
This new service clearly demonstrates the positive contribution that mobile technology makes to our everyday lives. The Floodline Warnings Direct service offers our customers a free and essential service.
Flood Risk Manager Craig Woolhouse from the Environment Agency said:
We want to ensure that everyone has as much time as possible to prepare for flooding and, by working with EE, we’re now able to warn even more people about the risks. Flood warnings save lives and this ground-breaking initiative is another way of raising awareness of flood risk.