Local · England
South Hams
Who to call and where to check in South Hams 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
- District council (two-tier area)
- ONS code
- E07000044
- Area
- 887 km²
- Region
- South West
- Fire and rescue
- Devon & Somerset
- Police
- Devon & Cornwall
- Emergency planning partnership
- Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum
- Largest built-up areas
- Ivybridge, Totnes, Dartmouth and Kingsbridge
Council emergency pages
South Hams is a district council in a two-tier area. Devon County Council is the highway authority, so gritting and winter roads are a county service.
- Council website southhams.gov.uk
- Emergency planning Emergency planning and response
- Gritting and winter roads Winter Travel
- Current emergencies and severe weather Before a flood
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):
- National Grid Electricity Distribution (South West England)
Ofgem’s figures for the whole licence area, 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)
Great Britain as a whole: 39.7 and 35.1. These are area averages, not figures for South Hams alone. About this dataset
Flooding
Environment Agency: 8 flood alert areas and 17 flood warning areas overlap South Hams. Waters named: South Devon Coast, English Channel, River Avon, River Erme, River Yealm, South Devon coast.
Warning areas include: River Avon at South Brent, Avonwick and Aveton Gifford; River Avon from Didworthy to Aveton Gifford; River Dart from Buckfastleigh to Totnes, including Staverton; River Dart from Dartmeet to Buckfastleigh; River Erme from Ivybridge to Ermington; River Harbourne at Crowdy Mill, Beenleigh, Bow and Tuckenhay; River Harbourne at Harbertonford; River Mardle and Dean Burn at Buckfastleigh; and 9 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 West 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):
- Ivybridge: Derriford Hospital (13.8 km); Torbay Hospital (28.1 km); Wonford Hospital (46.8 km).
- Totnes: Torbay Hospital (11.0 km); Derriford Hospital (30.3 km).
- Dartmouth: Torbay Hospital (15.0 km); Derriford Hospital (38.1 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.
Never Caught Out is not affiliated with the NHS.
Water supply
Water company for this area:
- South West Water · In your 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 South Hams: Roadford (South West Water). What a water resource zone is
Local risks and emergency planning
- Coast: about 300 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: 17 flood warning areas and 8 flood alert areas overlap the council area (details above).
- Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 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): Flooding; Transport accidents; Snow and low temperatures; Public disorder. Open the register for how likely and how serious each one is judged to be.
- Sandbags and flood help: Before a flood | South Hams District Council (the council’s own page; councils differ on whether they supply sandbags, so check what it says).
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 South Hams, January 2026. They are not live outages and not a guarantee for any address.
- Homes and businesses with 4G indoors from all four networks: 75%; from none: 2.8%.
- Outside homes and businesses, 4G from all four networks: 93%; from none: 0.2%.
- Land area with outdoor 4G from all four networks: 85%; from none: 1.7%.
- Premises that can get gigabit-capable broadband: 59%.
- Premises that cannot get decent broadband (10 Mbit/s down, 1 Mbit/s up) from a fixed line or fixed wireless: 454 (0.9%).
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: 11.7%
- Residents aged 65 or over: 28.3%
- Households of one person aged 66 or over: 16.7%
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
- Ivybridge
- Totnes
- Dartmouth
- Kingsbridge
Other built-up areas include Salcombe, Sherford, Marldon, South Brent, Yealmpton and Lee Mill.
Neighbouring councils
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 twice 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
- Understand how your council works (GOV.UK)
- 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)
- National Grid Electricity Distribution: power cuts (National Grid Electricity Distribution)
- 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)
- South West Water: In your area (South West 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 Devon: listen live (BBC Sounds)
- Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum)
- Before a flood | South Hams District Council (South Hams council)
- Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum: community risk register (Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 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)