The River Ouse, River Foss and River Derwent pose a flood risk in York during and after periods of heavy rainfall.
How to prepare for possible flooding
You can prepare for possible flooding in a number of ways:
- check to see if your home or business is in a flood-risk area
- find out how to protect your home or business from flooding
- sign up to get flood warnings sent directly to you by phone, text message or email
Get further advice about protecting homes and businesses from flooding from Yorkshire Flood Resilience.
The Environment Agency's flood information service is updated regularly; their current flood warning is refreshed every 10 minutes:
Find out what flood warning symbols mean.
How we prepare for flooding in York
In partnership with the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum, we have well established plans for the protection of the city of York, its people and premises when the River Ouse, River Foss or River Derwent pose a flood risk.
Our flooding action plans are triggered by Met Office weather warnings and forecasts.
We are a lead local flood authority and are responsible for flood risk management in York. We are required to develop, implement and monitor a strategy for local flood risk management.
York Flood Alleviation Scheme
The York Flood Alleviation Scheme (FAS) is a partnership project with the Environment Agency to carry out major flood defence upgrades within the city. The project focuses on 10 communities alongside the River Ouse and the River Foss and their tributaries, where there is a risk of flooding. New or improved defences are proposed in areas which meet cost benefit rules, as part of our plan to better protect 2,000 properties in York by 2021.