As of the 5th of December, O2 mobile customers will receive relevant flood warning and severe flood warning messages.
This free service from the Environment Agency means you will receive either a call or text to let you know if there’s a flood warning in your area. This will give people advanced notice of flooding and some crucial time to prepare. However, you can opt out of the scheme if you wish by texting REMOVE to 60006.
Throughout December the Environment Agency will be registering around 375,000 people across England on the O2 mobile network to the flood warning service. Those who live in flood risk areas have been automatically added to the flood warning service since 2010, beginning with BT landlines and then moving to provide warnings to mobile phones in 2014, with the EE network. There is also the potential for the same service to be provided by Three and Vodafone to extend the direct warning service to their customers over the next few months.
Those who are not on the O2 network can still receive free flood warnings by visiting https://floodsdestroy.campaign.gov.uk/ to check if their home is at risk of flooding and to sign-up.