Protecting a primary school and providing an early flood warning system to keep kids safe

In 2020 the River Wye broke its banks and flooded nearby Monmouth Prep School in Wales causing severe damage to the entire ground floor of the Prep School, playground and surrounding fields. 

According to the latest reports on the impacts of climate change, flooding caused by severe and frequent rainstorms is the UK’s most pressing climate-change risk and could affect millions of people causing extensive damage, disruption and loss. So, once the school was back on its feet, we were delighted to work with their insurance broker, Hettle Andrews, to make sure the property was protected against future flooding. 

Monmouth Prep School, Monmouth

Monmouth Prep School is a fully co-educational Prep School in Wales for children aged three to 11-years-old. 

The independent school is one of Wales’ leading prep schools and offers boarding and day attendance to pupils in modern and contemporary teaching spaces which encapsulate the very best of traditional, independent education.  We worked with the school’s insurance broker and project facilitator, Hettle Andrews, who work primarily with schools, universities, colleges and charities. 

The challenge

The school had previously had minor issues with flooding as the River Wye is situated at the bottom of its garden. However, the flood of 2020 was the most devastating. 

The river broke its banks and flowed into and through the school to the dual carriageway situated on the other side. The flood damaged the entire ground floor of the school, the playground and surrounding fields and the whole school had to be urgently evacuated. 

No warning: the school is surrounded by a flood bank and had flood gates installed in 2002 however there was no early warning system in place to get the flood gates closed in time.

Extensive damage: the 200-year-old school building sustained catastrophic damage and needed large-scale structural repairs to be restored.

Sanitation issues: the waste from the surrounding farmlands was washed into the school along with the floodwater, mud and debris causing not only damage but also sanitation issues. 

Inconvenience: the clear-up process included using five 40 foot skips which were filled with damaged items such as furniture, clothing, educational equipment and floating debris.

Disruption: the school had to close for nearly seven months to clear the debris, remove all the damaged school equipment, clean the entire premises, sanitise and eventually re-build.

The solution;

Andel’s FloodAlert – one of our innovative, industry-unique flood defence solutions which provides an early flood warning for properties not covered by the Environment Agency flood warning service. 

FloodAlert provides real-time information on rising water levels and automatically sends out early warnings. 

The robust and reliable system is easy to install and set up and once in, tracks surface water levels for up to 15km from a gateway. 

This means the school now has:

• A cost-effective, real-time local flood alert system with three alert levels 
• A sensor which sends SMS and email alerts to give them time to take action to protect their pupils and the school 
• Optional live monitoring on a cloud-based portal, via any device with internet connectivity
• A system that can communicate with an unlimited number of designated users
• Communication via a low-power LoRaWAN network. 

The result

Early warning: the school now has an effective early warning system for rising surface water. 

Safety first: the school now has safety measures in place to protect its pupils aged three to 11-years-old. 

Confidence: the early warning system gives the school staff around six hours from the first notification of rising waters to close the flood gates allowing plenty of time to evacuate the children as well as any equipment. 

Peace of mind: the staff at the school feel relieved knowing the water levels are constantly being monitored at the property especially because they are so close to the banks of the River Wye. 

Community: we are always quick to try and accommodate schools that require our services as we know they are the centre of the community and provide safe havens to many. 

We are proud to have been involved in this project alongside Hettle Andrews and to have been able to install our FloodAlert product on a site with such a rich history and provide the school with an effective early warning system plus peace of mind.

What the customer said;

The 2020 floods were devastating and left us with the fear that it could happen again. Having such little children on site, it was very stressful knowing there was no early warning system in place. Now we have a good five or six hours from the first notification of rising waters to close the flood gates, evacuate the children safely, and make the necessary arrangements to protect the building. With all these flood defence measures in place, we hope to never have a repeat of the destruction and school closure of 2020.

Rob Alexander, Caretaker, Monmouth Prep School