EMERGENCY planning is a year-round exercise in Northamptonshire. Three or four times a year, the emergency services, plus representatives from the utility companies, meet to plan for what could be a worst-case scenario.
They look at anything which could hit the county from floods to terrorists. To find out more.
LAWRENCE JOHN spoke to Local Resilience Forum Co-ordinator for Northamptonshire Police, George Cooper.
THE greatest risk facing Northamptonshire at the moment is pandemic flu.
This is one of the scenarios studied by the county’s Recover Workshop which looks at the issues local emergency services and councils – together with other partners – would need to address in the aftermath of a major incident.
The other top two scenarios are a power out for more than 24 hours and a major accident hitting BP’s St James petrol chemical unit in Northampton.
Northamptonshire Police recently hosted a Recovery Workshop to look at a range of scenarios and how organisations would need to respond to a major disaster.
Local Resilience Forum Co-ordinator for Northamptonshire Police, George Cooper, said: “We regularly hold exercises in responding to emergency situations, however, once the initial situation has been dealt with such as the waters receding after the floods in Northampton in 1998, there remains a huge amount of work to be done to get the community back on its feet.
“This workshop has pulled together colleagues from other forces and partners from around the country to share their experiences particularly around flooding, so that we in Northamptonshire can be best prepared, not only to respond to a major incident but to be part of the re-build afterwards.”
More than 50 organisations and agencies attended the recent event, held at Wootton Hall, Northampton.
Speakers included representatives from Anglian Water, Western Power and Trading Standards alongside discussions on how difficult and time consuming it is to dry out houses after water inundation and the work of the Association of British Insurers on the role of the insurance companies and what they can do to support the customers.
Sessions were held looking at the impact on communities based of differing scenarios, and best practice taken from other forces – most recently some of those dealing with the significant flood in Cumbria.
Mr Cooper said: “Every eventuality was covered from flooding to terrorism.
“We run full scale exercises about three or four times a year and we are always looking at new areas.
“It depends on the scenario as we do not want them to turn up without the right equipment. So if it is a flooding exercise like we held last month then they can turn up with equipment linked to a flood.
“We look at issues like if someone has been evacuated from their home do they have house insurance, what type and how do we get people in to assess the property.
“We can relate back to the floods which took place over ten years ago.
“What would happen if we had to go through it again? New flats have been built and the whole area is different.
“People could decide to stay in their flats above the water but they could be without electricity and after a few days they would need to be rescued. There is a fear with people living in a flooded area as there is an issue of evacuation if the water reaches the doorstep.
“Street lights can be turned off but when are they safe to go back on?
“We don’t want people going home and the electricity supply in the area is damaged."
