Flood lessons learned: Using natural topographic advantage in EMEA

A large flood loss at an industrial production site in Northern Europe highlights the importance of understanding and utilising natural topographic advantage to reduce property damage and business interruption losses.

The Insured was a multi-national industrial commodity manufacturer, with a commercial facility comprised of manufacturing and storage units, as well as office and research facilities.

Heavy and widespread rainfall caused the nearby river to burst its banks and flood a large part of the Insured’s premises. The need to open an upstream dam exacerbated the flooding downstream and contributed to the damage of the bridge that provided vehicular access to the site. As the floodwater subsided, it left the premises, stock and equipment covered in mud.

In response to the rising flood water, the Insured closed the premises and implemented a controlled shut-down of all operations. The water flooded on-site buildings extensively and damaged stores of spare parts, circuit boards and electrical motors. Overall, the flood impacted 80% of the infrastructure that is needed to operate the plant and machinery. Three months after the flood, the Insured had not announced a date to restart production.

Given the magnitude of the flood, it would have been difficult to avoid the loss entirely.  However, better utilisation of the site's topographic advantage and more robust physical mitigation measures could have reduced the operational and financial impact.

This case study is an excerpt from our 'Lessons Learned in Floods' publication which was developed in collaboration with Crawford & Company.