Flood of England and Wales successfully simulated
Kablenet.com
Published: 21 Jun 2004 14:00 BST
The technology in a national flood simulation exercise "passed expectations", says the Environment Agency
A major Environment Agency exercise testing the country's resilience to flooding was successfully coordinated by a website specifically designed for the task. The technology in the simulation, which involved the emergency services and central, local and regional government, "worked perfectly", said an Environment Agency spokesperson on 18 June 2004.
Exercise Triton was designed to test the national civil contingencies systems reaction to extreme coastal flooding affecting huge stretches of the English and Welsh coastlines. Emergency services were faced with the imaginary scenario of a tidal surge from the North Sea breaching defences from the Humber estuary southwards.
The website delivered more than 20,000 instructions to 700 different groups over a six hour period. Each control post was sent its instructions one hour ahead of schedule.
"The website has a powerful reporting tool that enables us to track the performance of the national civil contingency systems throughout the exercise and provide valuable data for the debrief and report.
"The exercise was designed to test the contingency plans of all groups and authorities in the event of emergency planning," said the spokesperson.
Chairman of the Environment Agency Sir John Harman said: "We constantly test and review our flooding procedures. Exercise Triton will help to make sure that we are ready for the most extreme circumstances."
The exercise was scheduled to run over several days, with the actual day spent dealing with the incident and the subsequent days with the aftermath. There is a framework for any lessons learnt for each major organisation involved and the overall report will be delivered to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
The Environment Agency expects to publish the full outcome of the exercise, including the lessons learnt, some time in winter 2004.
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