Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service Newsdesk

New County Hall at 17/07/2007 10:00

Tuesday 17 July 2007
at the Emergency Co-ordination Centre at New County Hall, Truro


Exercise ‘Hager Vor’ (Cornish for ‘Rough Sea’) will take place on 17 July at the Emergency Co-ordination Centre at New County Hall in Truro, the Environment Agency Flood Warning and Incident Room at Bodmin and the Police ‘Gold’ Incident Control Room at their headquarters in Exeter. The organisations involved will simulate their response to a scenario they would be expected to manage during a real tidal and coastal flooding incident.

Representatives from a wide range of organisations including Cornwall County Council, Emergency Planning, the Environment Agency, HM Coastguard, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, BBC Radio Cornwall, the Met Office, South Western Ambulance Service Trust and Cornwall County Fire Brigade will be taking part.

“The exercise will test the multi-agency flood warning and response plan for tidal and a coastal flooding and help identify any weaknesses, so that in a real event partners will be better informed and practised in working together to manage our resources as effectively as possible to help minimise impacts to people and property, and prove the robustness of our joint preparation” said Lib Dem Councillor Ken Yeo, Executive Member for Public Protection.
By the end of the exercise participants will have

• Validated the Cornwall multi-agency flood warning and response plan; Tested the communication links in the emergency co-ordination centre; Experienced communications and procedures between the various command and control posts that would be active during a major coastal flooding incident across Cornwall;
• Tested the procedures for resource deployment within Cornwall;
• Tested the procedures for identifying the location of ‘vulnerable people’ within the county;
• Validated the operating agreement between the Environment Agency and Her Majesty’s Coastguard in Cornwall in the provision of loudhailer flood warnings.

“Our ongoing public awareness work ensures people living in coastal flood risk areas can react quickly to protect themselves from flooding. This includes using our Floodline Warnings Direct and Floodline services and taking appropriate action to protect themselves when flooding is expected” said Stephen Marks, Flood Warning Leader

To increase awareness among partners a coastal flooding awareness event for all Category 1 and 2 responders was held at New County Hall, Truro on 13 June 2007. The event was organised jointly between the Environment Agency and Cornwall County Council Emergency Planning Department. Over 100 organisations took part.