Local · England
Isle of Wight
Who to call and where to check in Isle of Wight when the power goes off, rivers rise or a storm is coming: official links and figures, each with its source.
If someone’s life is in danger, call 999. For a power cut, call 105. This page lists official sources and figures. It does not say how safe or risky anywhere is.
At a glance
- Type
- Unitary authority
- ONS code
- E06000046
- Area
- 380 km²
- Region
- South East
- Fire and rescue
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight
- Police
- Hampshire
- Emergency planning partnership
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum
- Largest built-up areas
- Newport (Isle of Wight), Ryde, Cowes and Freshwater and Totland
Council emergency pages
- Council website iow.gov.uk
- Emergency planning iow.gov.uk
- Gritting and winter roads iow.gov.uk
- Current emergencies and severe weather iow.gov.uk
Councils announce rest centres, road closures and emergency help on these pages and their social media. Find your council by postcode (GOV.UK).
Power cuts
Report a power cut or check one: call 105 free from any phone, or use the operator’s website.
Network operator (not your supplier):
- Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (Southern England)
Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence area, April 2024 to March 2025, counting cuts of 3 minutes or longer:
- Southern England (Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks): 41.8 interruptions per 100 customers and 51.2 minutes without power per customer (2023/24: 51.3 and 57.6)
Great Britain as a whole: 39.7 and 35.1. These are area averages, not figures for Isle of Wight alone. About this dataset
Flooding
Environment Agency: 9 flood alert areas and 18 flood warning areas overlap Isle of Wight. Waters named: The Solent, English Channel, Eastern Yar, Monktonmead Brook, River Medina, Lukely Brook.
Warning areas include: Bembridge; Blackwater and Newport on the River Medina; Calbourne, Newbridge and Shalfleet on the Caul Bourne; Carisbrooke and Hunny Hill on the Lukely Brook; Cowes, East Cowes, and Newport; Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight; Freshwater on the Western Yar; Gurnard; and 10 more.
Check for flooding now · Sign up for free flood warnings (GOV.UK). Floodline: 0345 988 1188.
Weather warnings
The Met Office issues yellow, amber and red warnings for rain, wind, snow, ice, fog, thunderstorms and extreme heat. Current Met Office warnings (choose South East on the map) · What the colours mean
Health: NHS help and the nearest A&E
For urgent medical help that is not life-threatening, use NHS 111 online or call 111. Find urgent and emergency care services · Find NHS services near you (NHS website)
The nearest type 1 (major) A&E departments to the centre of each of the largest built-up areas, by straight-line distance (as the crow flies, not by road):
- Newport (Isle of Wight): St Mary's Hospital - Emergency Department (1.0 km); Queen Alexandra Hospital (23.1 km); Southampton General Hospital (27.5 km).
- Ryde: St Mary's Hospital - Emergency Department (10.0 km); Queen Alexandra Hospital (15.6 km).
- Cowes: St Mary's Hospital - Emergency Department (4.6 km); Queen Alexandra Hospital (20.3 km).
We have not found an open official list of urgent treatment centres and minor injury units for England, so they are not shown here.
Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS.
Water supply
Water company for this area:
- Southern Water · Works or issues in my area
To report no water, low pressure or a burst main, use the company’s page above. Your water bill names your supplier.
Water resource zones covering Isle of Wight: Isle of Wight (Southern Water). What a water resource zone is
Local risks and emergency planning
- Coast: about 190 km of the council boundary is shoreline at mean high water, by our measurement (this includes tidal estuaries). Coastal flooding and storm surges are possible; the flood areas above include any coastal ones.
- Flooding: 18 flood warning areas and 9 flood alert areas overlap the council area (details above).
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum publishes a community risk register: the official list of emergencies that planners prepare for here. The register document.
- Hazards the register names include (our grouping of its wording): Terrorism; Cyber attacks; Animal disease; Flooding; Industrial and chemical accidents; Transport accidents; Heatwaves; Snow and low temperatures; Fuel shortages; Storms and severe weather; Drought; Pandemic; Outbreaks of infectious disease; Power cuts; Loss of water supply; Wildfires; Poor air quality; Public disorder; Space weather; Volcanic eruption; Building collapse. Open the register for how likely and how serious each one is judged to be.
We list only what official sources say. We do not rate how safe or risky anywhere is.
Map
Phone and broadband coverage
Ofcom’s predictions of normal coverage in Isle of Wight, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.
- Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 86%; from none: 0.1%.
- Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 99%; from none: 0%.
- Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 95%; from none: less than 0.1%.
- Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 87%.
- Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 120 (0.2%).
Check an address on Ofcom’s coverage checker · Phones when the network is down: how to reach 999 · About this dataset
Local radio
This is the BBC station for the county or area, from the BBC Sounds station list. Coverage overlaps council boundaries, so tune to whichever station you receive.
Census 2021: planning prompts
- Households with no car or van: 20.8%
- Residents aged 65 or over: 29.2%
- Households of one person aged 66 or over: 18.0%
Who would fetch food or medicines for you or a neighbour on icy or flooded roads, and who would you check on in a power cut? Ask your pharmacist about repeat prescriptions before bad weather.
Largest built-up areas
- Newport (Isle of Wight)
- Ryde
- Cowes
- Freshwater and Totland
Other built-up areas include Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, East Cowes, Bembridge and Wootton (Isle of Wight).
Guides for any emergency
- Power cut: call 105 free. Priority Services Register · Compensation calculator
- Power cuts
- First hour of a power cut
- Flooding
- Flood alerts and warnings
- Storms
- Cold weather
- Grab bag and evacuation
- Emergency Alerts
- A battery or wind-up radio keeps working in a power cut.
- All council pages in England · All UK council pages
How these figures were gathered
- Council links come from GOV.UK Local Links Manager, the list councils keep for GOV.UK. We opened each one on 2 November 2026; links that no longer worked are left out, and a few council sites blocked our automated check, which is noted beside the link.
- Area is our measurement of the ONS generalised (clipped to the coastline) boundary, so it can differ slightly from official area figures.
- A flood area counts as overlapping if at least 1% of it lies inside the council boundary.
- A&E distances are straight lines from the centre point ONS gives for each built-up area to the centre of the hospital’s postcode. Travel distances and times will be longer.
- Water resource zones are listed when at least 1% of the council’s area falls inside them. The Environment Agency says the zone map is for mapping only, not for checking a property.
- Phone and broadband figures are Ofcom’s council-level predictions for January 2026. Mobile coverage uses Ofcom’s signal thresholds; an operator’s network counts if its predicted signal meets them.
- Coastline is our measurement of the ONS boundary clipped to mean high water, where it is not shared with another council. It includes estuary shores, so it is longer than the open coast; we only mention it above 20 km.
- The hazard list is our grouping of the words the register uses: we list a hazard when its terms appear at least once in the register’s text. It is not a rating of risk, and the register may cover more.
- Census figures are planning prompts, not risk scores. The household figure uses 66 and over, as the census tables do.
- Built-up areas are the largest by land area from ONS Built-up Areas 2022. Flood areas listed under a town are those whose official name includes it; a missing area does not mean a street will not flood.
Official sources we used
- Find your local council (GOV.UK; council links from GOV.UK Local Links Manager) (GOV.UK)
- Local authority district to fire and rescue authority, police force area, region and local resilience forum lookups (2025) (ONS Open Geography Portal)
- Map data and tiles (Open Database Licence) (OpenStreetMap contributors)
- RIIO-2 Electricity Distribution annual report 2024 to 2025: supplementary data file (Open Government Licence) (Ofgem)
- 105: the power cut helpline (Energy Networks Association)
- Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks: power cuts (Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks)
- Find my network operator (licence area boundaries) (Energy Networks Association)
- Real-time flood-monitoring API: flood areas (Environment Agency)
- Check for flooding (GOV.UK / Environment Agency)
- Sign up for flood warnings (Floodline 0345 988 1188) (GOV.UK / Environment Agency)
- UK weather warnings (Met Office)
- List of A&E type 1 departments (April 2026) (NHS England)
- Postcode locations (OS OpenData licence; contains Ordnance Survey, Royal Mail and National Statistics data) (postcodes.io)
- NHS 111 online (NHS England)
- Find NHS services (NHS website)
- Southern Water: Works or issues in my area (Southern Water)
- Water Resource Zones (Open Government Licence; contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database rights; some information © water companies) (Environment Agency)
- Find your water company (regions served) (CCW (Consumer Council for Water))
- Connected Nations update: Spring 2026, mobile and fixed coverage data (Open Government Licence) (Ofcom)
- Stations (local and nations radio) (BBC Sounds)
- BBC Radio Solent: listen live (BBC Sounds)
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum)
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum)
- Local resilience forums: contact details (Cabinet Office)
- Census 2021 TS045: Car or van availability (ONS via Nomis)
- Census 2021 TS007A: Age by five-year age bands (ONS via Nomis)
- Census 2021 TS003: Household composition (ONS via Nomis)
- Built-up Areas (December 2022) GB boundaries (ONS Open Geography Portal)
- Check for flooding: flood areas (Environment Agency)