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Exercise Watermark – biggest ever emergency exercise will see schools evacuated and include RAF helicopter rescues
The nation’s biggest emergency exercise is set to take place across England and Wales next month (7 – 11 March 2011). Exercise Watermark will test the countries’ responses to catastrophic flooding from overflowing rivers, collapsing reservoirs and tidal surges.
It will bring together ten government departments, 34 local resilience forums, emergency responders, water companies, hospitals and schools to test responses to a range of flood scenarios over four days. For the first time, communities will also be taking part – evacuating schools and hospitals and installing flood defence products to protect properties.
This exercise was one of the recommendations made by Sir Michael Pitt in his review of the summer 2007 floods.
Planned local exercises include:
- At Ashby Ponds (Lincolnshire) there will be a number of different flooding scenarios involving testing of air and boat rescues. This will include deployment of decontamination units, medical first aid and high volume pumping equipment.
- Bala Lake (Wales) - Simulated rescues will use a variety of water rescue techniques, including rescuing casualties off the top of a bus trapped in flood water, RAF helicopter winching rescues and weir / wading rescues.
Elsewhere across England and Wales there will be real-time evacuation of schools, transportation of locals to evacuation centres, British Red Cross first aid training and a variety of flood awareness raising activities.
Businesses across England and Wales will also be using Exercise Watermark as an opportunity to test their business continuity arrangements. In the summer 2007 floods, almost 7000 businesses were flooded and more recently in September 2009, hundreds of businesses were severely affected by flooding in Cumbria.
The provision of vital services, such as water, electricity and gas are often affected during times of major flooding. Five water companies and nearly all electricity providers will be using Exercise Watermark to consider the resilience of their sites and review their existing flood plan to ensure that critical infrastructure is prepared for future flooding.
Richard Benyon, Environment Minister responsible for flood risk management, said “We can never fully eliminate the risk of flooding, so it’s vitally important that we ensure that if and when a flood does occur, we are ready to respond and protect people and property. Exercise Watermark will be a unique opportunity for the Government, emergency services, the Environment Agency and communities to test their reaction to a range of flood events in a week long scenario.”
Dr Paul Leinster, Environment Agency Chief Executive, said: “Exercise Watermark will test the plans that Government, Environment Agency, local authorities and communities have put in place since the devastating floods of 2007. One in six properties in England and Wales is at flood risk – many of whom can get free flood warnings from the Environment Agency and this exercise will help protect lives, homes and livelihoods against future floods.”
