January 2005

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MORE TH>N response to the flooding in Carlisle

MORE TH>N RESPONSE TO THE FLOODING IN CARLISLE

John Hollis, Home Insurance Manager at MORE TH>N, said: “Our thoughts are with the people affected and we are doing all we can to help. MORE TH>N is leading the industry with its Risk Mapping System, which had identified most of the areas hit by this week’s events as a high flooding risk. This system means MORE TH>N is able to determine the individual risk of flooding for each and every home in Britain, enabling us to calculate premiums more fairly.”

How did it happen?
Carlisle is situated on a wide flood plain area to the north of elevated areas such as Shap Fell. A number of rivers converge in the centre of Carlisle including the Eden, Caldew and Petterill. This has a ‘bottleneck’ effect, meaning more flood damage, and these rivers combine to gather a huge catchment area to the south of Carlisle. This is where the majority of rain fell, approximately four inches over 24 hours covering Friday 7th and Saturday 8th January.

The last flood event in Carlisle was in 1968 when flood levels were three feet lower than this event. Defences were built after this event but these were reportedly overtopped by one metre of water last weekend.

What is the MORE TH>N Risk Mapping System?
MORE TH>N has been using a sophisticated geographical risk analysis tool covering every property in the country for the last couple of years to ensure that all customers are treated fairly.

The MORE TH>N digital mapping tool is based on the company’s own geological engineering risk techniques, combined with digital terrain mapping and address verification information from Ordnance Survey and a Geographical Information System supplied by ESRI (UK) Ltd. The model is continually updated to reflect improvements in flood defences.

Many homeowners are unable to find suitable insurance cover against flooding even if they are not in a flood risk area, because their insurance company may only looks at information at an “outward” postcode level e.g. BN1 rather than at a full postcode level e.g. BN1 3AD. Outward postcodes typically comprise 300 properties on average whereas full postcodes narrow this down to 15 properties. MORE TH>N are therefore able to offer household insurance to people priced on an individual basis, providing ‘fairer premiums’ for homeowners.

For further information please call Alison McCulloch on 020 7337 5728

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