Flood risks
possible, a normal routine. Further villages were affected in the following weeks including Oathe, Long Load, Thorney, and Moorland, which was subject to an emergency evacuation. Following the declaration of a major incident
and promises of support to the community from the Prime Minister, assets from the National Resilience register started arriving in the county. DSFRS coordinated one of the largest and most significant mobilisations of high volume pumps in recent history to provide support to the Environment Agency (EA). The resources which were involved in the
incident from the emergency services, local authorities and voluntary agencies, locally and from across the country, meant that considerable command, control and organisational processes were required. A Strategic Coordination Group, with senior officers from all the leading agencies (known as ‘Gold’), was established at Taunton Police Station. Silver and Bronze Commands were set up
to carry out functional operations as agreed by Gold. These included a strategic holding area at Taunton Deane motorway services, where the equipment and vehicles dealing with the incident were marshalled. An enhanced pumping plan led by the EA, which brought into operation large pumps from the Hook of Holland, was put in place to reduce the amount of water on the Somerset Levels. Due to its prolonged nature, the incident
was outside any normal operational response experienced by the service. Dealing with an incident over such a large geographical area, combined with the intense political interest and the need to manage public and media expectation, involved staff working long hours and outside their normal areas of work. This had a knock on effect on other areas of the
service, with fire officers being taken off normal duties and support functions, and prioritising the flooding above other work.
After the incident
In the months after the flooding, an enormous amount of positive feedback was received from the communities affected and the public for the actions of the service’s personnel and staff from other agencies. Excellent working relationships were built with other responders during the flooding, which will be beneficial should similar events occur, while action has been taken to minimise the impact of flooding in the future. Long stretches of the river have been
dredged as part of the first phase of the 20 year Somerset Flood Action Plan, coordinated by Somerset County Council. As part of the plan, a new Somerset Rivers Authority was set up to reduce the likelihood, duration and impact of flooding in the county. The new authority has overseen the progress of the action plan, and focused on enhanced maintenance of river channels and dredging to reduce flood risk. Several public consultation events and debriefs were held following the incident, both multi agency and by individual agencies. Inevitably, areas for improvement were identified with agreement among the agencies that the response must be much quicker and that inter agency working must be improved. The EA identified site specific ‘trigger points’ by which an incident would be escalated in stages above ‘business as usual’. The fire service will follow these trigger points as part of an agreed multi agency response. Due to the complex and prolonged nature
of the event, the following issues were identified as a result of the DSFRS debrief:
FOCUS
www.frmjournal.com DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018
17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
