Somerset: local emergency information

In an emergency

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.

Council pages

Emergency planning Preparing for emergencies (somerset.gov.uk)
Gritting and winter roads Gritting (somerset.gov.uk)
Sandbags Preparing for flooding (somerset.gov.uk)
Where rest centres or emergency help are announced During flooding (somerset.gov.uk)

Power cuts

Network operators (not your supplier):

National Grid Electricity Distribution (South West England), about 85% of the land area
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (Southern England), about 15% of the land area

Our log of the National Grid Electricity Distribution and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks live fault feed recorded 1 unplanned cut here from 1 November 2026, 16:05 GMT to 1 November 2026, 16:36 GMT.

Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence areas, April 2024 to March 2025, counting cuts of 3 minutes or longer:

South West England (National Grid Electricity Distribution): 59.0 interruptions per 100 customers and 50.4 minutes without power per customer (2023/24: 57.5 and 46.9)
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 Somerset alone. About this dataset

Flooding

Environment Agency: 17 flood alert areas and 76 flood warning areas overlap Somerset. Waters named: Bristol Channel, River Parrett, River Tone, River Yeo, Doniford Stream, River Brue.

Warning areas include: A361 East Lyng to Burrowbridge; Cannington Brook at Cannington; Curry Moor and Hay Moor; Doniford Stream at Doniford; Doniford Stream at Sampford Brett and upstream properties; Doniford Stream at Swill Bridge; Doniford Stream in the Sampford Mill Farm area; Halsewater Stream at Norton Fitzwarren; and 68 more.

Flood warnings we have logged for these areas: 0 since 1 November 2026, 14:53 GMT.

Where the nearest A&E departments are

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):

Taunton: Musgrove Park Hospital (1.6 km); Yeovil District Hospital (33.7 km); Weston General Hospital (35.0 km).
Yeovil: Yeovil District Hospital (1.2 km); Dorset County Hospital (29.2 km).
Bridgwater: Musgrove Park Hospital (15.0 km); Weston General Hospital (22.1 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. Find urgent and emergency care services (NHS website).

Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS. For medical help that is not an emergency, contact NHS 111. About this dataset

Water supply

More than one company supplies parts of Somerset:

Wessex Water · Current incidents
South West Water · In your area
Bristol Water · Service status

Water resource zones covering Somerset: Wessex (Wessex Water, about 72% of the area); Bristol (Bristol Water, about 27% of the area). What a water resource zone is

Phone and broadband coverage

Ofcom’s predictions of normal coverage in Somerset, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.

Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 79%; from none: 0.9%.
Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 98%; from none: less than 0.1%.
Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 90%; from none: 0.6%.
Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 76%.
Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 561 (0.2%).

Check an address on Ofcom’s coverage checker · Phones when the network is down: how to reach 999 · Your right to request decent broadband (Ofcom) · About this dataset

Coast

Yes. About 180 km of the boundary is shoreline at mean high water.

Local radio

BBC Radio Somerset

Weather warnings

UK-wide Met Office warnings in our log: 0 since 1 November 2026, 14:53 GMT.

Emergency planning partnership

Avon and Somerset Local Resilience Forum: its community risk register lists the emergencies planned for here.

Census 2021: planning prompts

Households with no car or van: 14.0%
Residents aged 65 or over: 24.8%
Households of one person aged 66 or over: 15.5%

Largest built-up areas

Neighbouring councils

Bath and North East Somerset, Dorset, East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, North Somerset, Wiltshire

Useful wherever you live

Power cut: call 105 free. What to do in a power cut · Priority Services Register · Compensation calculator
Check flooding by postcode and sign up for free warnings (GOV.UK)
What to do in a flood
Current Met Office warnings · What the colours mean
Your water bill names your water company, or find it by postcode (Water UK).
A battery or wind-up radio keeps working in a power cut.
Census prompts: 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.

How these figures were gathered

Council links were opened on 1 November 2026 and each page mentioned its topic. A person has not yet checked them.
Power cut counts are incidents only, not homes affected or how long cuts lasted.
Our flood warning log began on 1 November 2026, so it is not a flood history.
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: the part of the ONS boundary (clipped to mean high water) not shared with another council, rounded. Tidal river edges are not counted as coast.
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, up to four, 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.

Publishing check

Before a local page is shown to search engines it has to pass every rule below on 14 nights in a row. Until then it stays online for anyone who follows a link, but search engines are asked not to list it. Last run: 1 November 2026, 16:38 GMT. Result: Not yet.

Rules from our methodology. Differences are counted against the other 19 pilot councils.
Rule	Needed	This page	Result
Fields filled	12 or more of 18	16 of 18	Pass
Facts that set this page apart	6 or more	8 (fields 3, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)	Pass
Official council links	3 or more, each opened and checked by a person	4 different links opened automatically; 0 checked by a person yet	Not yet: waiting for a person to check
Length of our own records	90 days or more for power cuts, floods or weather	0 days (logging began 1 Nov 2026)	Not yet
Text not too similar to other pages	Similarity below 0.5	Highest 0.32 (median 0.24)	Pass
Figures not identical to another page	No identical set	Unique	Pass
Unusual figures checked	Any figure far outside the national range checked by a person	Not checked yet: we do not have national figures to compare against	Not checked yet
Stable over time	Passes every rule on 14 nights in a row	0 of 14 nights	Not yet

Fields we have filled: Council name and ONS code, Resilience forum, Electricity network operator, Power cuts logged, Flood alert and warning areas, Flood warnings logged, Met Office warnings logged, Water company, Council emergency planning page, Gritting or winter service page, Sandbag page, Where rest centres are announced, Census 2021 planning figures, Local BBC radio, Coastal, Neighbouring councils. Not filled yet: Strategic roads and closures, Local note.

Official sources we used

RIIO-2 Electricity Distribution annual report 2024 to 2025: supplementary data file (Open Government Licence) (Ofgem)
105: the power cut helpline (Energy Networks Association)
National Grid Electricity Distribution: power cuts (National Grid Electricity Distribution)
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks: power cuts (Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks)
Real-time flood-monitoring API: flood areas (Environment Agency)
Check for flooding (GOV.UK / Environment Agency)
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)
Wessex Water: Current incidents (Wessex Water)
South West Water: In your area (South West Water)
Bristol Water: Service status (Bristol Water)
Connected Nations update: Spring 2026, mobile and fixed coverage data (Open Government Licence) (Ofcom)
Find your water company (regions served) (CCW (Consumer Council for Water))
BBC Radio Somerset: listen live (BBC Sounds)
UK weather warnings (Met Office)
Avon and Somerset Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (Avon and Somerset 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)
Local authority district boundaries and codes (ONS Open Geography Portal)

We link to official pages so you can check the latest advice yourself. If something here differs from what an official source says now, follow the official source. Where we quote or adapt official text, it contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.