blueprint

Enhancing the Profession Issue 47 Winter 2006

The Magazine of The Emergency Planning Society

In this issue:Mostar - Operation Florian

Flood Risk In FlorenceBuilding Resilience In Birmingham

Manchester EvacueesPlanned Emergencies

and much more…

BIueprint

PublisherBenham Publishing Limited4th Floor, Orleans House,Edmund St, Liverpool, L3 9NGTel: 0151 236 4141Facsimile: 0151 236 0440email: [email protected]: www.benhampublishing.com

EditorGeoffrey [email protected]

Artwork and DesignDavid Coffey

Admin ManagerKerry Howard

AccountsJoanne Casey

Media No.1039

PublishedNovember 2006©Blueprint-Benham Publishing LtdISSN 1468-5124

Editorial ContributionsEditorial for publication should be sent to:The EditorBlueprint MagazineBenham Publishing Limited4th Floor, Orleans House,Edmund St, Liverpool, L3 9NGTel: 0151 236 4141email: [email protected]

Legal Notice©Blueprint is a Benham PublishingLimited title. None of the editorial orphotographs may be reproduced withoutprior written permission from thepublishers. Benham Publishing Limitedwho would like to point out that all editorialcomment and articles are the responsibilityof the originators and may or may not reflectthe opinions of the Emergency PlanningSociety or Benham Publishing Limited.No responsibility can be acceptedfor any inaccuracies that may occur.

Correct at time of going to press.

Blueprint is the quarterly magazine of theEmergency Planning Society. It is distributed free

of charge to the members of the EPS inFebruary, May, August and November.

Blueprint is available Online atwww.the-eps.org

EPS Contact Detailswww.the-eps.org

Emergency Planning SocietyThe Media Centre

Culverhouse CrossCardiff CF5 6XJ

Tel: 0845 600 9587Fax: 029 2059 0396

Office Manager [email protected] [email protected]

Membership [email protected] [email protected]

Conference [email protected]

Regional BranchesWest Midlands: West Midlands, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Hereford & WorcesterNorth Western: Lancashire, Cumbria, Merseyside, Manchester, Cheshire and Isle of ManEast Midlands: Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and NorthantsSouth Western: Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Avon, Devon and CornwallYorkshire and Humberside: North Yorks, South Yorks, West Yorks and HumbersideEastern: Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, Bedforshire and CambridgeshireSouthern: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Isle of WightNorthern: Cleveland, Tyne & Wear, Durham and NorthumberlandSouth Eastern: Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, SurreyRepublic of IrelandNorthern Ireland ScotlandLondonWales

BIueprintContents04 David Kerry, Chair of the Board05 Dan Taylor, Operations Manager05 Welsh Branch Visit Assembly Building05 Carmarthenshire Rest Centre Capability06 Ian Hoult, Chairman of the EPS06 Hertfordshire Resilience Conference08 Operation Florian09 ‘A Toolkit For Survival’ Seminar10 Flood Risk in Florence12 Flood Exercises in the Thames Region14 Building Resilience in the Birmingham Area16 Better Preparation For Evacuation17 The Human Aspects of Business Continuity18 Manchester Evacuees20 Project Argus in leeds22 Daedalus Pipe Mine Clearance24 Temporary Mortuaries25 Mayday, Mayday26 Stranded Motorists28 EROCIPS30 Temporary Mortuary Simulation32 Birmingham Airport33 Chelmsford Resilience

35 Disaster Planning

I would like to take this opportunity to say hello to all members and introduce myself asthe new Society Administrator/Operations Manager with the Emergency Planning Society,based at the Head Office in Cardiff.

I have spent the last 5 years as the General Manager of University of Wales, NewportStudents’ Union, a far cry from Emergency Planning and the Society some might say but youwould be surprised. As General Manager, I worked as the senior member of staff in amembership led organisation, answering to the elected executive committee of the Union.During that time the motivation was primarily improving membership services, developing amembership focus by talking and listening to, engaging and supporting members andgroups, providing the best service possible with limited resources available. The other mainfocus was to improve the marketing of the organisation and seek new streams of income,whilst enhancing those already in place. Any new income was invested back into the Unionto improve the services to members and to further fund the interest groups within theorganisation.

It is this mix of skills and experience that I intend to transfer into my new role with theEPS and focus on the following areas:• Business Continuity - Chair, David Leslie, [email protected] • CBRN - Chris Abbott [email protected] • COMAH/Pipeline - Nick Elliott, [email protected] • Crowd Safety - Sue Storey, [email protected] • Health - Andrew Houghton, [email protected] • Human Aspects - Rosie Murray, [email protected] • Oil Pollution - Tony Morris, [email protected]

Active Branches and Professional Working Groups are the backbone of theSociety, with members being engaged in productive, worthwhile local, regional andnational work. I have found, through my experience in a member led organisationthat activity and the communication of that activity encourages more membersto become active and engaged in the Society, providing more professionaldiscussion both within their groups and in a wider context, with all interestedmembers on discussion boards and at Society events.

I firmly believe that member led organisations such as ours are justthat, led and guided by the membership. Through the elected board andcouncil structures in place, members of the Society have an opportunityto mould, shape and develop its future direction and vision. I considerthat it is down to the Central Office to support and facilitate theaccomplishment of that vision and I look forward to helping theboard and membership achieve its goals.

www.the-eps.org Page 5www.the-eps.org Page 4

No more PIG’s!From David Kerry, Director of Professional Issues

Well, it always was a horrible way ofexpressing this very important part of theSociety’s work, that of providing specialistadvice and support to members,government departments and agencies andothers through our Professional IssuesGroups. Read on to find out what replacesthem.

Mike Parker, Director of ProfessionalIssues in 2004, undertook a major review ofthe role and composition of the ProfessionalIssues Groups at that time and his reportmay be found in Blueprint Issue 41.However, many of his recommendationshave yet to be fully implemented, and in arecent update of that review it has beenfound that currently less than half of theGroups listed on the EPS website arefunctioning. Those that are functioning areproducing some good work, but are failing totell the rest of the Society what they aredoing and, without a sympathetic drivingforce behind them, they have becomesomewhat introspective and insular. Thelack of communication with the rest of themembership is graphically emphasised bythe out of date or lack of any information onthe PIG’s website pages, although this has inpart been because of the past lack of anefficient centralised system for updating thepages. The lack of information on the webpages fails the groups as well because themembership is unaware that many of themare in fact working quite hard. It is clear thata fundamental rethink on the workings ofthe groups is needed, not least because intheir present form many of them are failingto fulfil any useful purpose and perhapsshould be disbanded.

This rethink started when the future ofProfessional Issues Groups was discussed ata meeting of the Chairs of ProfessionalIssues Groups, Branches and the Board inCambridge on 25th October. Theimportance of having active Working Groupswas accepted without question, anddiscussions centred on the need for theSociety to be fully and professionally able toengage with government and others,particularly in regard to the NationalCapabilities Programme. Key decisionstaken were:

Change the name from ProfessionalIssues Groups (PIG’s) to ProfessionalWorking Groups (PWG’s)

A much less unfortunate abbreviation anda more accurate description of theirfunction.

To have a mixture of ProfessionalWorking Group’s, Focal Points and ProjectTeams.

Those PWG’s that are currently workingand with leadership will continue as standinggroups:• Business Continuity - Chair, David Leslie,

[email protected] • CBRN - Chris Abbott

[email protected] • COMAH/Pipeline - Nick Elliott,

[email protected] • Crowd Safety - Sue Storey,

[email protected] • Health - Andrew Houghton,

[email protected] • Human Aspects - Rosie Murray,

[email protected]

• Oil Pollution - Tony Morris,[email protected]

Former PIG’s that are no longer active asgroups, but which still have a lead contactwill become Focal Points, with the LeadContact from time to time advising theBoard of any emerging issues and to whomthe Board can approach for informed adviceand representation when needed.• Nuclear - Terry Kelly,

[email protected] • Transport - Tony Matthews,

[email protected]

A few PIG’s have not been active for sometime, and do not currently have either orboth Chairs and Members. It was decided toabolish these groups.• Emergency Planning Information• Flooding and Severe Weather• Local Authorities• Information Technology

Issues which arise and would benefitfrom the brining together of a team ofprofessionals but which will not need astanding PWG will be dealt with by theformation of ‘task and finish’ Project Teams,with a specific remit and lifespan.

Look at some realignment with theNational Capabilities Programme

The National Capabilities Programmeoffers opportunity for the Society to considerrealigning some of our existing PWG’s to thecapabilities work streams, or possibly theNational Risk Register, and this will belooked at further over the coming months.However, some subjects are outsideCapabilities, such as Oil, Crowd Safety andothers not covered by Civil Contingencies Act2004, and it will be appropriate to maintainsome PWG’s in their own right.

All Groups to have Terms of ReferenceCurrent ToR’s are widely varying across the

Groups, and there is an absence ofunderstanding of what may be expectedfrom the Groups, and in return from theBoard. It was agreed that core Terms ofReference should be developed and appliedto all groups, and these will be developed inconsultation with the Chairs of Groups.

All groups to have agreed targets foroutcomes or products

It was agreed that all PWG’s and ProjectTeams must have identifiable outcomes orproducts. These will vary from group togroup – some may produce guidancedocuments, others will co-ordinateprofessional representation on behalf of theSociety in meetings and in consultations withgovernment departments and otheragencies, others will develop lobbying tools,and some will do all of these and more.

Website pages to be regularly updatedwith news of the activities of PWG’s

The web page links on the main page willbe updated in line with the reorganisationsalready explained, and, critically, a majoreffort will be made to keep the pages up-to-date with news about the activities of thegroups, meetings attended, and progresswith outcomes and products.

Increased Central Office SupportThe Central Office will provide support to

Chairs of PWG’s, initially with organisingmeeting dates and venues, distribution ofagenda, minutes and reports, uploadingactivity updates onto the web pages.

Database of Subject MatterExperts/Talking Heads

The Society has for a long time had theintention of compiling a database ofexperienced professionals who could becalled upon to provide advice on specificissues, and also to be available to respondon behalf of the Society to media requests.Although past attempts at this have beenunsuccessful for a variety of reasons, wehave decided to give it another go, and allPWGs, Focal Points and Project Teams willbe asked to contribute to the database.

Next StepsA lot more work is needed to ensure that

the initiatives described here are fullyimplemented, and the next meeting ofChairs of PWG’s, along with Chairs ofBranches, will be held in January 2007.News of the progress made at the meetingwill be posted on the website.

Welsh Branch Visit newAssembly Building

On Monday 30 October the Welsh Branch met in Cardiff (below)and were hosted by the Emergencies and Security Policy Branch,

Welsh Assembly Government in Cardiff Bay. With members fromacross Wales gathering on the Capital, a visit to the newAssembly Building was organised and a tour preceded lunchand the Branch meeting.

This new Assembly Building, or “Senedd” meaningparliament in Welsh, is an innovative and state of the artdesign making maximum use of new technology, with amodern and user-friendly building interior. The Branchmembers were able to visit the committee andconference facilities and spent some time in thedebating chamber, experiencing the superb acousticsthat we were told will catch those secret whispers!Natural light has also been a considerablerequirement and the central 'chimney', a windassisted rotating lantern, is also used to ventilate thechamber and in doing so helps to reduce energyconsumption.

Should Society members find themselves inCardiff, do take the time to visit this inspiringbuilding. Public access is encouraged, there is arefreshment area within the building, and guidedtours can be arranged.

Following recent training and exercise events forRest Centre Managers and support staff (includingthe voluntary Sector) it was recommended thatimprovements needed to be made with regards to theCounties capability to respond to incidents requiringevacuations.

Carmarthenshire is a large Authority, which is proneto widespread flooding. Due to the mainly rural nature of

the County it was recommended that the resources toassist in the establishment of rest centre should be

spread more widely. Thus it was decided that 6 additional“Mini Rest Centre boxes” should be made up in addition to

the four standard boxes already situated at strategiclocations within the county. The standard “Rest Centre boxes”

have enough documentation and materials to deal with 250evacuees, along with a fully charged mobile phone for the Rest

Centre Manager (tested and charged on a regular basis). Inaddition, these boxes each contain magazines, puzzles and toys

for any children who may be evacuated. The “Mini Rest Centre boxes” are to supplement the larger boxes,

and contain the necessary stationary and material to register up to ahundred people.

All Rest Centre Boxes are located in social care establishments andare accessible 24 hrs a day. With the addition of the extra “Mini Rest Centre

boxes”, the County is now more adequately prepared to deal withevacuations no matter where or when they occur.

DAN TAYLOR Society Administrator/Operations Manager

Improvements toCarmarthenshire’s Rest Centre capability

David Kerry Dan Taylor

www.the-eps.org Page 6

Ian HoultChairman’s Report

Holding a ‘voluntary’ position within theSociety and having a full time day job cansometimes bring conflicting priorities. Ihave recently experienced that with thediscovery of 20 WW2 pipe mines buriedbeneath an airfield in Hampshire. Not justany old airfield but the home toHampshire Police’s fixed wing aircraft and‘India Juliette’, the Coastguard search andrescue helicopter. Anyway, having donelittle else since July the Operation finishedlast week so normal service can beresumed. (Read more about the pipemine operation later on in thispublication).

Despite my having been somewhat outof the picture the Society has not stoodstill and since the AGM notable progresshas been made on a number of issuesand some new initiatives are coming tothe fore which will be of interest, andpotentially benefit, to all.

Very soon after taking the Chair I metwith Bruce Mann at the CCS and soonthereafter with Michael Charlton-Weedyfrom the EP College. Both meetings wereextremely positive. Bruce was very keenthat EPS and Cabinet Office engage inmore joint working, which I support andwe spoke about the potential for someregional workshops early in 2007. Wealso discussed the future of theProfessional Interest Groups, the annualconference and associated issues.

We also discussed the over-riding aimof the Society to achieve CharteredInstitute status. The first step on this roadis the ‘core competencies’ work that weare working on with the College and otherpartners. Beyond this Bruce pledged thesupport of the CCS in helping the Societywith this aim.

At the meeting with Michael wetouched on some of these issues in a littlemore detail regarding improving therelationship between the Society and theCollege. I am very pleased to announcethat Michael agreed to give 5% discountfor every member on prospectus coursesat the College from 1st April 2007.

I chaired the first Council meeting ofthe new term in September wasexceedingly pleased at the positive feelingaround the table. Many of our Branchesare very active and providing an excellent

service to their members. I was also veryprivileged to be invited to attend a jointevent of the Northern Ireland andSouthern Ireland Branches, which was afabulous seminar looking at relevanttopics to their members, includingbusiness continuity, exercise design anddelivery etc. The joint branch executivemeeting I sat in on afterwards was verypositive and worthwhile.

The new Board is also workingcohesively and being dynamic andinnovative and I am sure that all memberswill begin to see the benefits of this newapproach shortly. The recent appointmentof our new Society Administrator, DanTaylor, is also a significant step in theright direction

We continue to move forward and thefuture is an interesting place foremergency planners and the Society.

Ian HoultChairman of the EPS31 October 2006

Climate change is already having a majoreffect on insurance claims in the UK;weather related claims cost the insuranceindustry over £1bn a year and are increasingby 4% per annum on average. For the fivemillion people living in flood risk areas acrossthe UK, the Norwich Union Flood Map meansmore accurate premiums and a betterunderstanding of the flood risk to theirproperty.

Data for the map was collected by anairborne radar system, as part of the‘NEXTMap Britain’® programme. The data isused to produce a Digital Elevation Model, amap, which shows the height of the groundabove sea level. This is then combined with aflood software model to produce informationon where floods are likely to occur, how theyspread and how far they extend. It is the firsttime that the two technologies have beenbrought together to produce a model of thissize.

The Norwich Union Flood Map providesextents and depths of river flooding for 7return periods: 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 250 and1000 years. Using modern digital mapping

technology, and underpinned by theNEXTMap Britain height data, the risk offlooding can be ascertained for individualproperties.

The map has been created usingrecognised hydrological modellingtechniques by JBA Consulting; generallyusing a normal depth method but also‘Jflow’, a proprietary method they developed,which is particularly effective for low lyingarea like the Fens.

Some of you might not know however thatthere is a caveat in the Local GovernmentMapping Services Agreement, MSA, whichmeans that there are restrictions on the useof NextMap Britain for flood modelling.However, Norwich Union is happy to discussindividual needs and a license for its floodmodel. Local Authorities will be able topurchase a DVD with shape files of most ofthe flood outlines for the different returnperiods. For further information go towww.norwich-union.co.uk/dataservice

It should be emphasised that the NorwichUnion flood map was created to assessinsurance risk and is not something that

The Hertfordshire Resilience Conference is your opportunity to learnfrom the experience of those directly involved in responding to recentemergencies and business continuity incidents.

Over the last 17 years, the successful conference has featuredpresentations from responders to some of the worlds most significantemergencies and this year will be no exception.

Our first confirmed speaker is from Dacorum Borough Council on howthe Local Authority is managing the long term recovery of the local areafrom the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot explosion and fire of December 2005.The Council has involved the local residential and business communitiesand has developed a recovery strategy for application in other situations.

All the UK airports had to implement business continuity arrangementsto deal with the heightened security measures introduced in August.Airlines had to cope with delays within airports at the latter end of thesummer peak season for travel. A speaker will join us from the air industryto share their experience.

To fully reflect the content of the Civil Contingencies Act, furtherspeakers will focus on the emergency response to a major incident andconsider the planning issues associated with a potential influenzapandemic.

The conference returns to Stevenage Arts and Leisure Centre onWednesday 21st March 2007. Judging by previous experience, the event willbe a sell-out, so book your place early by contacting the HertfordshireEmergency Planning team on 01992 555961, [email protected] or logging on towww.hertsdirect.org/resilience

Norwich Union would underwrite forplanning purposes.

Alongside the flood risk mapping NorwichUnion has also been involved with therecently completed FLOWS project, inpartnership with Cambridgeshire Council,that retro fitted a property to make it floodresilient. Some of the measures installedincluded replacing carpets downstairs withceramic tiles, use of water resistant limelightplaster, raising white goods above the floodlevel and fitting door boards on the exteriordoors. The property was a housingassociation house in Lowestoft and hadalready flooded several times. The tenantworried every time heavy rain was forecast incase the house became flooded. Followingthe heavy rains in September, this houseflooded along with the neighbouringproperties. The tenant in the resilient housemerely had to mop up a small amount ofwater whilst the other residents are currentlyin alternative accommodation whilst theirproperties are repaired. For furtherinformation go to:www.floodresilienthome.com

Hertfordshire Resilience presents …


The Norwich Union Flood Model

Following a request by members of the Northern Ireland (NI) Branch to hold atraining event to deal with the issues surrounding a flu pandemic the NI ExecutiveCommittee once again set about putting together a programme to include not onlykey speakers and a workshop but also to provide guidance and a clear checklist fordelegates to take away and use within their organisation. In addition a question andanswer facility was set up on the Northern Ireland Branch Webpage in order thatissues could be addressed after the event with the answers provided by expertsand posted for all to read.

Over sixty delegates from various levels of Central Government Departments,Local Government, Emergency Services, Health and Social Services Trusts,Utility Companies, Finance Houses and Banks, Transport Companies andVoluntary Sector attended the event held at The Comfort Hotel near Antrim

Key speakers on the day included:Dr Lourda Geoghegan, a Consultant in Public Health Medicine, currently

on secondment from the Eastern Health and Social Services Board to theDepartment of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to work on regionalinfluenza pandemic contingency planning. Dr Geoghegan concentrated onthe health issues facing the population and the Health Service during a flupandemic. In addition the impact on the population and the businesscommunity was developed.

Dr Anne Wilson, a Consultant in Public Health Medicine from EasternHealth and Social Services Board explored the issues in relation to Multi-Agency planning and preparedness for an influenza pandemic.

Les Drew brought a wide range of knowledge and experience from 28years working in the Northern Ireland Electricity Industry withresponsibilities in areas such as risk management, business continuity,internal audit and IT security. His presentation focused on thedevelopment of contingency plans in the event of a flu pandemic andprovided good practice guidance on a structured approach in maintainingcritical work areas.

Iain Webster from Network Media, a journalist for thirty years (previouslywriter for BBC 9 o’clock news, presenter and editor of BBC NorthernIreland evening news programme) gave a stimulating presentation on theuse of the media for pre-event education, public warning/information anddiscussed how the media would cope with maintaining service during suchan event.

Tony Andreucetti, a Senior Business Continuity Consultant with HewlettPackard, emphasised the need for further developments in planning over thenormal business continuity plan.

Most of the above presentations are available to read on the NorthernIreland Webpage.

After a question and answer session with the presenters the seminar movedinto a three inject scenario where the delegates were given the opportunity to

discuss issues from their personal or organisational perspective as a flupandemic would develop.

Michael Skelton (NI Branch Regional Representative) from Northern IrelandElectricity/Viridian Group, rounded off the scenario and spoke on the issues which

should be considered as the waves of a flu pandemic would subside.David Neill (NI Branch Webmaster) concluded the presentations by giving advice

on the access to the Northern Ireland Website for use of the question and answerboard and of course the click to join membership facility.

The event was sponsored by Hewlett Packard, Northern Ireland Electricity/ViridianGroup and Belfast City Council to whom the Northern Ireland Branch extend their thanks

and appreciation for all their support both practical and financial.Initial feedback from delegates was very positive with comments such as “excellent

workshop and speakers”. ”very professional seminar, speakers and content excellent” Thanks must also go to the employers of the Executive Committee who provided venues for

meetings, hospitality, release of staff for preparation and development of this seminar and ALLBranch activities. These include, Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, Browne McKee

Partnership, The Ulster Hospital & Community Trust, North Down Borough Council, Belfast CityCouncil and Northern Ireland Electricity/Viridian Group. Without their support this event and the

running of the NI Branch would not be possible.


Operation Florian

Two members of LincolnshireEmergency Planning Unit (EPU), RonnieMyers and Jamie Tomlin, travelled to thecity of Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovinafrom 18 to 25 September to work withtheir local counterparts to delivertraining on how to write a multi agencyemergency response plan.

The city of Mostar was greatly affectedby the Balkans war and is slowly gettingback to normality but the Mostar CivilProtection Unit is in urgent need oftraining and resources in order toeffectively respond to an emergencyincident.

Mostar is particularly vulnerable toEarthquakes, landslides, forest fires,collapsed buildings, landmines andfloods and, there are no written plans forany of these events. If one of theseincidents occurs, each emergencyservice responds independently withlittle or no communication betweenthem and a chaotic, uncontrolledresponse usually ensues.

The first morning was spenttranslating the presentations that we hadprepared before we departed from theUK. The Mostar CPU personnel have avery busy schedule during the workingday so we had to deliver our trainingafter they had finished work which wasideal for us as it allowed us time duringthe day to prepare our trainingprogramme.

After we were introduced the MostarCPU manager, a lady called SlavicaAnicic, she asked us for a load ofequipment she was expecting us to bringfor her and her team. Apparently, shehas been promised this equipment for

some time now and was extremelydisappointed when we informed her thatwe had none of these resources for her.

The list of equipment she wasexpecting included a 4x4 land rover,radio communication equipment, mobilephones, fax machine, stationary, laptopcomputers, maps, torches, batteries anda whole lot of other stores in order forthem to carry out their duties.

After talking with them via thetranslator it quickly became apparentthat they do have systems in place todeal with incidents in conjunction withthe emergency services and they have anenthusiastic volunteer sector at theirdisposal i.e. flood wardens, rest centresidentified in and around the city and amountain rescue unit albeit with little orno resources.

Slavica informed us that flooding isthe most frequent incident that they haveto deal with (The city is built in, aroundand in some cases on the river Nerita)and she was very keen that we help herto write a flood plan which, afterconsultation with all emergency serviceswill, bring about a coordinated and multiagency response.

We then focussed our training onproducing a flood plan and dispensedwith nearly all that we had earlierprepared in the UK and concentrated ona few presentations on the concept ofGold, Silver and Bronze Commands usedsuccessfully in the UK and the content ofa flood plan for the City of Mostar.

As they had no idea how to write aplan we had to literally start with thefront cover and date the plan (including areview date), make up an amendments

page and explain the importance of it, adistribution page, a list of contents page,a consultation statement then anintroduction.

Over the next few days we wentthrough what needed to be included inthe plan in the various sections such as;1. Who and how the plan is activated.2. Warning and informing the public.3. Roles and responsibilities of the Police,

Fire Brigade, Ambulance Service, CivilProtection Unit and any otherorganisation who has a role to play inthe event of a flood.

4. Evacuation procedures in conjunctionwith their rest centres.

5. Clothing, feeding and shelter for thoseevacuated.

6. Pre identified and numbered RV pointsat various locations along the river andin the city for use by the emergencyservices (mapped and put in the planas an Annex).

7. Communication plan.8. Media plan. Location for press

conferences (Pre preparedstatements/holding statementsincluded an Annex)

9. Location and alternative locations forGold and Silver Commands.

10.Contacts list both during and out ofworking hours.

11.Restoration phase.12.Testing the plan (Live and/or tabletop

exercises)

We also very briefly touched on theimportance of having a multi-agencydebrief after an incident, as Slavicainformed us that an incident debrief doesnot currently happen.

(See recommendations below) Agreat deal of important work to getthrough and even more so when usingan interpreter but at the end of the weekwe produced a good template for themto build upon and once the informationfrom all agencies is gathered andincluded in the plan, the amendmentsmade and a consultation phasecompleted, they can at least have acoordinated multi-agency flood responseplan.

The Mostar Civil Protection Unit arean extremely dedicated and enthusiasticteam who clearly want to help theircommunity, they want to produce plans,they want to work alongside theemergency services but they simply donot have the resources and arefrustrated at having very little to workwith. It is also clear that they have a lot

to learn but are keen to do so. We areconfident that with continued training in thefuture and the provision of resources, they willbe an asset to the people of Mostar.

Recommendations1. Lack of a command structure during incidents i.e.

the absence of using the Gold, Silver and Bronzesystem needs to be looked at in greater detail not justwith the Mostar CPU but with all the emergencyservices. When we covered this subject it was warmlywelcomed by the CPU but it clearly needs to beaddressed to all agencies to improve their response to anincident. Future Op Florian training should concentrate onthis subject.

2. Debriefing is another area that needs to be included infuture training as this is currently not in place following anincident. I suggest “Structured debriefs” something alongthe line as taught by the Centre of Structured Debriefing beintroduced to the emergency services that is now widely andsuccessfully used throughout the UK.

3. Resources are sadly lacking here and the CPU is eagerlyawaiting the arrival of equipment they desperately need. Notonly do they need the resources but it is important to not forgetthat when and if the equipment arrives, the Mostar CPU willrequire training in the use of it.

Ronnie Myers Jamie TomlinLincolnshire Civil Protection UnitFire & Rescue HQSouth Park Ave Lincoln LN5 8EL


Northern Ireland Branch of theEmergency Planning Society

“Catching Corporate Flu – A toolkit for survival”One-day seminar 26.10.06

Opposite: Mostar CPU Jamie rear left,Ronnie rear 3rd from leftTop: Ronnie Instructing using aninterpreter (standing)Bottom: MostarSymbols of the BalkansWar are everywhere (This shows amortar bomb and shrapnel)

Ronnie Myers and Jamie TomlinLincolnshire Emergency Planning Unit, Fire & Rescue HQ, South Park Ave , Lincoln LN5 8EL


Flood risk in Florence: forty years onDAVID ALEXANDER Professor of Disaster Management University of Florence

The night of 4 November 1966 wasmarked by severe storms, floods andlandslides throughout central andnorthern Italy. At 3.30 a.m. the River Arnoburst its banks in the Casentino area nearArezzo and by sunrise water had invadedthe historical centre of Florence, reachingdepths of 3.65 metres at the Bargello and3.96 m at San Niccolò oltr'Arno. Watereventually came over the top of the PonteVecchio but thankfully failed to demolishit. Thirty two of the 112 deaths recorded inthe 1966 floods occurred in Florence, andthe impact upon architectural heritage,art treasures, archives and libraries wasincalculable. The damage is symbolisedby Cimabue's crucifix, a work dated 1290-5 that hung in the church of Santa Croce(flood depth 2.7 m) and which, despitepainstaking restoration, was 70 per centdestroyed by the flood such that it nowlacks parts of the face of Christ.

Marble tablets that indicate themaximum flood level in 1966 (and forsome cases in 1844 as well) can be foundon walls throughout the centre of the city,including inside the Municipal Theatre.Periodically, video cassettes and books ofphotographs are issued to commemoratethe floods, which are clearly an importantpoint of reference in the city's history andin the life of all Florentines over the age of40. Ten years ago a major nationalemergency management exercise, Arno-30, was held in Florence using the 1966floods as the reference event for thescenario that was enacted. Arno-30 tookplace only a few years after three seasonsof serious flooding had again affected thewestern periphery of the city from PiazzaDalmazia to Campi Bisenzio, which in1991 was well and truly submerged.

Despite these developments, manydecision-makers in Florence still regardthe floods as detracting from the city's

image and hence as something thatshould not be remember very publicly.Nevertheless, commemorations will takeplace and the 40th anniversary of thedisaster provides many people in theItalian emergency managementcommunity with the opportunity to reflecton progress--or the lack of it. This articlewill consider the heritage of the floodsand some of its emergency managementimplications.

Updating the impact scenarioAnyone who has visited Florence in

recent years will be aware that the city isvery different from what it was like in the1960s. Restrictions on traffic have beenimposed in the centre. Electric and gas-powered busses now circulate, two newmetropolitan tramlines are underconstruction (trams were abolished inFlorence in 1957) and Eurostar trainsarrive at Santa Maria Novello station via ahigh-speed intercity rail link. Manyhistoric buildings have beencomprehensively restored, though therestoration of Santa Maria del Fiore, thecathedral, is so complex and delicate thatit is taking decades to achieve. Moreover,tourist numbers have increasedrelentlessly, adding to the generalovercrowding. Despite a steady reductionin the population of the municipality ofFlorence, which is now about 350,000,extensive urban renewal is underway onthe flat plains to the north and west of thecity. Light industry is abundant here, andat Calenzano there is even an oil storagefacility with remarkably similarcharacteristics to the one at Buncefield.

In 1966 most of the physical damagewas wreaked by a combination of water,mud and heavy oil from ruptured centralheating tanks. Since then, oil has beenreplaced by natural gas as the mainheating fuel, but on the other hand thereare now an estimated 10,000 cars in andaround the city centre. Where the Viali diCircumvalazione, the inner ring-road, dipsunder the main railway line, it isextraordinarily vulnerable to suddenflooding. Moreover, the city's road

network frequently suffers from gridlockand work to expand the A1 motorway sothat traffic can effectively bypass the citywill not be complete until the end of thedecade. Hence the plan to encouragepeople to self-evacuate from the citycentre, which was published in thetelephone directory in 1991, waswithdrawn several years later for fear thatit would only lead to more gridlock.

Despite the best of intentions on thepart of planners, the hazard scenarioremains almost unchanged. In the late1980s a river basin authority was createdalong American lines, but it has had only alimited effect upon hydrological planning.The Arno is a flashy river--moreaccurately a torrent with seriouspretensions to become a fully-fledgedriver. In mid-August its flow can diminishto zero, engendering severeeutrophication problems. The effect of amighty river flowing through the centre ofFlorence is actually created by weirswhich in high summer pond the stagnantwater. In November and March the Arnocan flow over the Chiusa di Santa Rosa,next to the Ponte Vespucci, with awe-inspiring discharge, roaring furiously andsending up clouds of spray.

River management strategyUnfortunately, an ill-considered

strategy to bring the national economy outof stagnation was put into place in 1967,the year after the floods. The 'Ponte Law'led to six months of free-for-all ingranting building licences. The result wassudden, massive urbanisation of thebanks of the Arno upstream anddownstream of Florence, including themain pressure points where topographyforces the river into a gorge and funneleffects occur on flood-flows. In 1967 oneof the most vulnerable of the Middle ArnoValley communities expanded across thefloodplain by 75 per cent.

The intense levels of development incentral Tuscany mean that there is littleopportunity to regulate flows in the Arnoby natural means. Dredging and levéebuilding are held to increase the floodhazard downstream. Hence, wherepossible, the River Basin Authority usessemi-structural flood defence measuresand has thus created many cassed'espansione, meaning land which is heldvacant so that it can be flooded withminimal effects. A major dam andreservoir, the Bilancino, have beenconstructed in the Mugello Mountains

north of Florence. However, this will onlyaffect the River Sieve, a relatively minoraffluent of the Arno, and most of the cassed'espansione are necessarily situateddownstream of the city centre, as this wasthe only area where there was still spacefor them.

In central Florence the Arno has beendredged and the river banks have beenraised and consolidated. The mainobstacle remains the Ponte Vecchio, aslittle can be done to increase the flowthrough it beyond 2500 cubic metres persecond (the 1966 floods involved 4000cumecs). A bypass tunnel has beenproposed, but there is little support for theidea, as it would involve difficulthydrological and geotechnical problems,as well as huge costs. At least, decades ofhydraulic and hydrological modelling, andof improvements in regionalmeteorological forecasting, mean that thephysical side of the problem is nowexceedingly well known.

In 1992 Italy promoted a nationalemergency planning and managementstrategy, the Augustus Method, which hasunified methods of assessing risks andorganising the response to disaster. It isbased on the codification of emergencysupport functions for efficientcommunication during crisis situations.With regard to emergencies in Florence itprovides the formal mechanism forcoordination between the municipal,provincial and national levels of civilprotection administration..

Emergency planning strategyIn the early 1990s the City of Florence

inaugurated a new emergency operationscentre in Via dell'Olmatello, located on thewestern periphery of the city strategicallyclose to rail links and the airport. It wasrecently enhanced by the construction of atwo-storey, state-of-the-art emergencycontrol centre, which is shared with theProvince of Florence. The latter hasoffices close to the city centre and anequipment storage facility to the north atSesto Fiorentino.

Links between Florence and thesurrounding communities have graduallybeen strengthened, but there arecurrently problems with the evacuation

arrangements. The City's Civil Protectionservice has a four-volume emergencyplan that is being updated in a somewhatdifferent manner to the Provincialadministration's fully computerised plan.Ensuring compatibility of arrangementsfor notification, departure and arrival ofevacuees is a delicate problem in acomplex, congested situation like theFlorence metropolitan area. Moreover, thecivil protection office of the Region ofTuscany, which is also located in Florence,has been dogged by problems of ensuringcompatibility between the emergencyplans of the nine Tuscan provinces.

Emergency response arrangementsThe Olmatello centre is also the co-

ordination headquarters of volunteerorganisations. In Florence the VenerableCompany of the Misericordia has anunbroken tradition of emergencyresponse operations that stretches backto AD 1245. It has been joined by anumber of other organisations, includingseveral that deal with forest-fire fighting.All of them are registered with thegovernment for civil protection work andthey regularly train and exercise theirmembers in this field. Hence, PietroBortone, the chief emergency co-ordinator for Florence boasts that ifnecessary he can mobilise 1000volunteers within ten minutes and 5000within one hour: given the wealth ofexperience available in the area and thehigh degree of organisation, this isprobably a fair assessment.

In 1966 the emergency response wasdominated by the so-called angeli delfango--"mud angels"--untrainedvolunteers, most of whom were studentsor other enthusiastic young people. Forthe last 15 years emergency response hasbeen heavily regulated and increasinglysubject to complex planning. In a futureflood alarm, volunteer response squadswould immediately start work onsandbagging the national library and statearchives (both of which are situated on thebanks of the Arno), lifting major works ofart out of harm's way and conductingother pre-programmed activities. Themunicipal GIS system has registered theaddresses and details of all pensionersand handicapped people in floodableareas and this would be used to give themassistance with evacuation.

On the more negative side, althoughthe Italian Fire Service is highlyprofessional and fully trained in all formsof rescue, measured per head of thepopulation it is the smallest in Europe.Currently, initiatives are being pursued toexpand it, including beefing up thevolunteer side. Nevertheless, the

abolishment of military conscription in the1990s means that there is now no surplusof military personnel to conduct disasterwork. No one yet knows whether theincreased professionalism of volunteercivil protection associations will besufficient to compensate for thesedeficiencies when the next major disasterstrikes Italy.

Flood disaster risk in the 21st century

Coincidentally, 2006 also marks the30th anniversary of the industrial accidentthat occurred at Séveso near Milan andthe tenth anniversary of the catastrophicflood that swept through the villages ofthe Versilian Mountains west of Florence.The latter event, which killed 13 people,had an estimated recurrence interval of700 years. It galvanised the Tuscanemergency planning community intoaction.

However, it is one thing to have smallmountain villages under water and quiteanother to have a major city, manythousands of tourists and a pricelessartistic heritage under threat. Emergencymanagement in Florence, Tuscany andItaly is still underfunded, and despitestrenuous efforts it is still in need offurther professionalisation, as well asgreater political and public support.Fortunately, the basic model andorganisation are very sound. We canconclude that as a result of changingpatterns of human activity the flood risk inFlorence has not diminished, but in anyfuture event the emergency responsewould be vastly more professional andwell-organised than it was in 1966.

In conclusion, one should not forget theother risks. In 1993 a very seriousterrorist attack occurred in Florence, andin 2000 a fatal crash occurred at theairport. Earthquakes are a potentiallyserious hazard in the Apennines north ofthe city, while landslides and occasionalsnowfalls are hazards to many roads inhilly and mountainous areas. Hence thereis no shortage of work for the civilprotection community in central Tuscany.



Major flood exercises in the Thames region

Thames Region. The data was then manipulated to best suit therequirements of the exercise and to offer a challenging flood event for theAgency’s flood duty officers to deal with.

All the data was loaded on to JBA’s Computerised Exercise ControlSystem (CECS), which simulates the Environment Agency’s owntelemetry system, displaying rainfall and river level information to floodduty officers in a safe working environment. CECS also providesautomatic alarms when river levels reach warning thresholds or totrigger an operational response just like the real thing.

The beauty of CECS is that it is designed to run across a local areanetwork and therefore each duty officer logged on to the system is usinga single set of data based around the same exercise. More importantly,ExCon can increase or decrease the speed of the exercise by altering thetime compression. This allows the intensity of the exercise to beincreased or decreased as desired by the control team.

Running the ExerciseFollowing an initial briefing providing information on the current

situation, the exercise participants were presented with simulated MetOffice information including 5 day weather forecasts and heavy rainfallwarnings. The ExCon then set the CECS clock ticking and the recordedrainfall and river level information began to flow into the AIR and thephones started to ring. The time compression was carefully managed soas to ensure that the required level of stress was experienced in a safeworking environment. At times, ExCon would deliver more phone calls tothe AIR than could be effectively handled adding extra pressure to the callhandling staff.

ExCon was manned by the JBA design team, PR officers, Monitoringand Forecasting Duty officers and Emergency Duty Officers all simulatingroles outside of the AIR to make the experience as real as possible.

During Exercise Noah in West Area, Operations Delivery gangs weredeployed to the new flood defences in Banbury to test response times andprocedures.

Lessons LearnedEach exercise was hailed a success, Katharine Dolman from the

Environment Agency’s Flood Incident Team at Wallingford commentedthat “at times it felt as though we were involved in a real incident”.

The exercises highlighted improvements that need to be made to theAIR’s and procedures, however, the most common recommendationmade in the Post Exercise Reports was that more training and exercisingis required to maintain expertise and familiarise staff with the catchmentsthat they operate and the procedures that they follow.

In England and Wales, over 5 Million people either live or work in theflood plains of our rivers, of which 30% (1.5M) are located in the ThamesRegion. From its source in a remote meadow in Gloucestershire to theEnglish Channel, the River Thames and its tributaries include some5,330km of main river. Climate change is expected to bring moreextreme weather with wetter and more intense rainfall expected duringthe winter months.

The Environment Agency is responsible for managing flood risk onmain rivers and one of their key roles is flood forecasting and issuingflood warnings. In addition they provide an operational responseensuring that river structures on the River Thames and flood defencesthat they own are able to function properly during a flood event.

Why Exercise?The flood forecasting and warning service in Thames Region

comprises a Regional Flood Monitoring and Forecasting team at Readingand 3 Area Flood Incident Management teams at Wallingford (West Area),Frimley (South East Area) and Hatfield (North East Area), with tidal floodwarnings being issued from the Thames Barrier.

Thankfully, major flooding happens rarely, however, in recent yearsthe frequency has increased. The flood warning service is beingcontinually improved and a network of flood duty officers are required tobe able to carry out this function, therefore, training and exercising is anintegral part of the whole flood warning service. At any one time, thereare approx 30 staff on standby who are able to respond to carry out theflood forecasting, warning and operational response functions of theAgency’s Thames Region during a flood event. These staff are on aweekly standby roster averaging 6-8 people per Area and Region, backedup by a call down list of support staff, the numbers are in the region of300. This may sound like a lot of people but the Thames Region is vast insize including Greater London.

Exercise PlanningThe Environment Agency commissioned JBA Consulting to design,

plan and run a series of 2 day major flood exercise for each of the 3 Areaswithin the Region:

• 25-26th May 2005 - Exercise “Portunus” in South East Area;• 29-30th November 2005 - Exercise “Deucalion” in North East Area;• 10-11th October 2006 - Exercise “Noah” in West Area.

In the last 10 years, JBA Consulting have run over 30 majorflood exercise across the UK including Exercise Triton in 2004,the first national flood exercise involving over 2500 people from60 organisations at 35 different locations.

Each of the 3 exercises were targeted at internal staff only,with the aim of focussing on internal procedures including staffinteraction in their roles within the Area Incident Room (AIR)and simulated roles outside of the AIR.

An Exercise Planning Group was set up comprising of stafffrom Regional Flood Forecasting, Area Flood IncidentManagement, Area Operational Delivery Unit and consultantsfrom JBA Consulting. The Group set the objectives, agreed thescenarios and gathered the hydrometric data required to designthe scenarios.

The key objectives included:• To test flood warning and operational plans and

procedures;• To test the deployment of flood data recording staff to

site and the communication to and from the AIR;

• To test handover procedures;• To test the roles of Area Base Controllers and the

communications to Liaison Officers;• To test the use of Floodline Warnings Direct for fax,

phone, SMS warnings, email and pagers;• To test media handling including mock TV and radio

interviews;• To test SITREP and HELP reporting procedures;• To test call handlers.

In order to simulate external professional partners andpublic calls to the AIR, the Exercise Control (ExCon) team fromJBA played the roles of the emergency services, localauthorities, utilities, media and of course the public at risk offlooding. Providing a variety of challenging and thoughtprovoking scenarios to deal with.

Exercise DesignThe exercises were designed using historic flood event data

from rainfall and river level gauging stations throughout the

Exercises these days pay more attention to the impact of themedia. A new service from the Government News Networkgives support to your media role play by providing mock TVnews bulletins and newspaper front pages.

These can be used to ‘story board’ your exercise, being alively and interesting way to introduce new scenarios.

Or they can be produced ‘live’ during the exercise, either onor off site. Media injects are excellent tools to pile on thepressure. Your exercise players may think they have said theright things in the heat of the ‘crisis’, but what does it look likein print or on the television?

Costs for this service vary, dependent on the scale required,but as a guide, costs for recent clients have ranged from £500to £4,000.

Recent clients include Durham & Darlington CivilContingencies Unit, Birmingham International Airport, and theBritish Army’s Command and Support Training, for a series ofexercises around the country.

To find out more or discuss your needs, contact:

Bob Wade (Civil Contingencies & Resilience, GNN)Tel: 0121 352 5525 or (m) 07771 [email protected]

New mediainjects servicefrom GNN

Bring your exercise aliveMedia Injects service

Give your exercise anedge of realism withauthentic media injects.The new service fromGNN can provide you withTV news bulletins andnewspaper front pages.These can be used to‘story board’ your exercise, or produced liveas part of your exercisemedia role play.

GNN, as part of the Central Office ofInformation, has wide experience of exercises. All GNN personnel are security cleared.

To discuss yourrequirementscontact:

Bob WadeTel: 0121 [email protected]


BUILDING RESILIENCE

It is widely accepted that, if we are tostrengthen the UK’s ability to prepare forand respond to major emergencies, weneed to build resilience across society as awhole. In addition, the emergencyplanning profession has, for some time,held up the approach to contingencyplanning in Australia etc as an example ofbest practice in relation to ‘community-led’emergency planning.

Despite this, it is the assertion of thisarticle that, whilst we have witnessedsignificant strengthening of multi-agencyworking within the statutory sector, westill have a very long way to go in relationto improving resilience within widersociety.

Before looking at how we might changethis, it is important to look at the reasons,most of which are plainly obvious:

• There is a general presumption withinsociety that responding to emergencies isthe prime, if not sole, preserve of the‘blue-light’ services. Local authorities,various agencies and voluntary sectoremergency responders might get somerecognition as being part of thesupporting cast!

• This is reinforced by the fact that in theUK, unlike much of the rest of the world,that the emergency services are relativelyclose to the communities they serve andhence the need for ‘self-reliance’ is lesspronounced (Note 1). Clearly, this cangenerally apply to most other aspects ofsocial provision, cleaner neighbourhoods,health promotion etc., and not justemergency preparedness and response.

• Similarly, the frequency and scale of themajority of major emergencies we havefaced in the UK has to some extentreinforced the view that suchemergencies can safely be left to thestatutory sector or that the statutorysector must do better! It is only when youlook behind the headlines that youdiscover that voluntary and communityorganisations, and indeed individualcitizens themselves, may have played asignificant role.

There is increasing recognition that UKsociety can no longer afford to inhabit anysuch comfort zone and that there is a needto develop strategies to effectively promotemuch greater community involvement inbuilding resilience.

The Birmingham ExperienceThere is nothing like real life

emergencies to focus minds:• The Birmingham Tornado certainly

reinforced the assertion that we are nowmore likely to witness severe weatherevents.

• The evacuation of large parts ofBirmingham City Centre and the arrest ofterrorist suspects reinforced concernsthat we are living in a more dangerousworld.

• Major power outages affecting nearly40,000 people, some for 24 hours, andseparately the loss oftelecommunications in a number ofdistricts illustrated the vulnerability ofparts of our critical infrastructure.

Doing nothing was not an option. The

need to ensure that communities are atthe heart of all aspects of our resiliencework is becoming generally accepted,including amongst communityorganisations themselves.

From the start it was recognised that itwas important to develop resilience aspart of the City Council’s generalrelationship with the broad spectrum ofvoluntary, community and residentsorganisations that already exist. Trying tobuild new organisations would not onlyduplicate effort but would ultimately befruitless. Within Birmingham we have alarge number of individual organisationsand some very effective umbrellaorganisations, including the VoluntaryServices Council, Association ofNeighbourhood Forums etc.

Implicit in our community strategy isthat it must be ‘owned’ by the communityorganisations themselves and ensure thatit reflects the needs of the very diversecommunities that are Birmingham.

The only exception to this ‘building onwhat already existed approach’ is thedevelopment of a BirminghamCommunities and NeighbourhoodsResilience Panel that will provide overalldirection to the strategy and share bestpractice and so forth. The development ofterms of reference, membership etc hasbeen part of the dialogue with the groupsthemselves.

The strategy, in essence, is limited toproviding a policy and organisationalframework. The vast majority of the workhas been the development of simple andpractical activity at a citywide level andwithin individual neighbourhoods.

Preparedness & PublicityImproving preparedness, increasing the

percentage of households with personaland family emergency plans requires aconsistent and persistent approach. Ourown brochures, leaflets and web pageshave been reviewed in consultation withcommunity organisations. However thereis also a need to ensure that ‘resilience’infects all aspects of communication andmedia. Articles and features are appearingin community newsletters and magazines.Presentations are being made to publicmeetings. Training is being provided forcommunity representatives so that theycan ‘champion’ the need for resilience inthe same way as they might around theneed for cleaner and saferneighbourhoods. The promotion of ICE (incase of emergency) in relation to bothmobile phones and a paper version forwallets / purses has also been identified asa high priority by neighbourhood forums.

Photo and text see separate e-mail re:launch of ‘Preparing for Emergencies inBirmingham’ Brochure

Council Emergency Information LineAs with many major emergencies, and

one of the lessons of the BirminghamTornado was the need to ensure theprovision of timely and accurateinformation. Following discussions withcommunity organisations, we areestablishing a Council EmergencyInformation Line. This is a dedicatednumber within the city’s 24/7 call centre.Boards, for lamppost display, and leafletshave been produced so that withinminutes of any emergency occurring localresidents will be advised of how to gainaccess to information. The telephonenumber and website will also be promotedthrough usual media. Call centre staff willhave direct access to information hostedon the incident pages on the Council’swebsite.

Influenza Pandemic PlanningThis continues to be the top risk within

the UK. Undoubtedly, more than any otherrisk, the extent to which there is aneffective response will be determined bythe level of self-reliance within ourcommunities.

Community organisations are lookingat: how preparedness can be increased atan individual level; how communitynewsletters etc might be used to reinforcepublic health messages and howvulnerable neighbours might besupported. In relation to this last pointconsideration is being given to howresidents might self-identify as vulnerableand with support being provided by theequivalent of a flu version ofneighbourhood watch / telephone tree.

Martin TolmanPrincipal Emergency Planning OfficerEmergency Planning and Business

Continuity UnitBirmingham City CouncilWork: (0121) 303 4825Fax: (0121) 675 2178Mob: 07766 925 158e-mail:

[email protected]

STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Training and ExercisingThe involvement of volunteers within

this area has usually been limited to‘playing’ at being the dead or injured. Ourstrategy will ensure that voluntary andcommunity representatives are involved inall aspects of training and exercising.

Recently voluntary and communityrepresentatives participated in ExerciseThyme, a multi-agency influenzapandemic exercise. Their involvementcertainly provided a new dimension to thelearning outcomes. For example theiridentification of ‘critical services’ verymuch focussed on: access to money, foodand water, heat and light etc – priorities inrelation to council services came welldown the list! Based on current planningassumptions for infection rate / fatalitiesthere was concern that the ‘worried-well’impact factor on willingness to report towork / use public transport etc was beingunderestimated. The need to proactivelyuse community / faith / business leadersto reinforce government messages wasalso stressed.

Summary Involving community and voluntary

organisations in building resilience is notrocket science but in Birmingham, wehave based it on three clear principles:1) Resilience needs to be integrated into the

priorities and activities of the full anddiverse range of voluntary, communityand residents groups.

2) That community engagement needs tobe integrated into ALL components ofresilience activity. It is not an add-on andit should inform all: risk assessment,planning, training and exercising, andresponse activity.

3) The work will need to be detailed,consistent and appropriate to thedifferent organisations. There may bequick wins but no quick fixes.

Finally, there will be much good workbeing developed in other areas andopportunities for sharing best practiceare welcome. If you would like moreinformation or might even be interestedin setting up a ‘CommunityInvolvement’ professional workinggroup within the EPS then please don’thesitate to contact me.

The inverse relationship betweendistance/accessibility to emergencyresponders on the one hand and self-reliance on the other is almost certainlyapplicable within the UK – with thesense of dependency being mostpronounced within our major urbancentres. I would appreciate anyone whoknows of research in this area lettingknow where to look

Martin Tolman, Principal Emergency Planning Officer, Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Unit, Birmingham City Council


Helping planners better prepare for evacuation and shelter.

The Human Apects of Business Continuity

Evacuation is not a new concept for emergency planners. Overthe years there have been countless successful evacuations, but inrecent years the context for evacuation planning has changed.With climate change and building taking place on flood plains,risks from flooding have increased. The threat of terrorism,meanwhile, has raised the possibility of scenarios unthinkableprior to the attacks of 11 September 2001.

At the same time, the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 hasestablished a framework for multi-agency planning at the localand regional level. This has facilitated more systematic collectiveassessment, planning and response to the risks that we all face.New non-statutory national guidance on evacuation and shelterhas as a result been produced by the Civil ContingenciesSecretariat in the Cabinet Office in response to calls from localresponders and planners. The guidance has been developed inclose consultation with a very wide range of stakeholders,including amongst others, the Local Government Association(LGA), Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Chief FireOfficers’ Association (CFOA), the Voluntary Sector Forum (VSF) andthe Department of Health.

In developing the guidance, it was clear that there were avariety of myths and confusions that had built up around thesubject. Firstly, evacuation was not the standard response for anyemergency. There are only a limited number of scenarios whichcould give rise to large scale evacuation and shelter (of between25,000 and 100,0000 people) or the ‘mass’ evacuation of more thanthis number (the guidance defines mass evacuation as affectingover 100,000 people). The main events that could give rise toevacuation and shelter on such a scale are very major flooding,very large industrial accidents or transport failure, and verysignificant acts of terrorism. This guidance encouragesemergency planners and responders to work on a broader levellocally and with regional counterparts to produce scaleable,flexible plans. These should be capable of being operated on asmall-scale to deal with local incidents or joined up withneighbouring plans to deal with wide-impact incidents and large-scale evacuation and shelter requirements.

Secondly, evacuation is by no means an easy or risk-freeoption. Around 100 people died in 2005 as a result of the pre-emptive Hurricane Rita evacuation in Houston, Texas. And in mostscenarios concerning chemical, biological or radiologicalcontamination, it is generally best to stay in doors (which theguidance describes as 'sheltering in-situ'). The guidance makesclear that, when considering evacuation, responders first need tojudge whether the majority of people will be safer being supportedas they seek shelter at home or in a suitable building nearby. This

is the standard message under the 'Preparing for Emergencies'initiative, and is regarded by the National Steering Committee onWarning and Informing the Public as the best general advice togive most people caught up in most emergencies.

If large scale evacuation is required, local and regional plans,built from a ‘ground-up’ perspective, should help make sure theresponse is relevant and appropriate for those managing thecrisis locally. Local and Regional Resilience Forums have, ofcourse, a critical role to play in achieving this. Through them,mutual aid agreements and the 'joining-up' of plans forevacuation and shelter should help responders to maximiseefficiency and deliver help quickly where it’s needed. As withother guidance that the Cabinet Office has produced to supportresponders implementing the 2004 Civil Contingencies Act, theEvacuation and Shelter guidance re-iterates that emergencypowers and the military should not be relied upon in planning orresponse.

Thirdly, a lesson from many real-world incidents in the UK(e.g. the response to the Carlisle floods in 2005) is that localcommunities have a critical role to play in the response to, andrecovery from, a disruptive event. The guidance emphasisesthat, where possible, communities should be made aware ofwhat they should do in the event of any evacuation that mightarise from local risks (as identified in Community RiskRegisters), like flooding. Community ‘self-help’ and persuasivecommunications strategies like these are generally moreeffective in enabling evacuations than relying on 'top-down'enforcement. As the US police authorities found out duringHurricane Katrina, despite the fact that unlike their UKcounterparts they had explicit powers to enforce a non-terroristevacuation, they were unable to do so.

And lastly, some responders were confused by the myriad ofdifferent legislation that could relate to evacuation and shelter.These range from the impact of animal-welfare legislation on theevacuation of zoos, to the less exotic issue of the impact of healthand safety legislation on the operation of shelters. The guidanceseeks to clarify these and other legal points that have provedproblematic in the past. This is supported by a clear explanationof the wide ranging roles and responsibilities of organisations inevacuation and shelter.

Evacuation and Shelter Guidance is being sent out to Category1 responders and is now available to download at the UKResilience website (www.ukresilience.info). The guidancecomplements other statutory and non statutory guidance on theCivil Contingencies Act 2004, Emergency Preparedness andEmergency Response and Recovery, available at the same site.

Business continuity has been a fastgrowing aspect of any business for someyears. The Civil Contingencies Act hasintroduced the importance of businesscontinuity into the local authority and it isnow a major part of any emergency planfor local communities. When disasterstrikes Category One respondersimplement plans which have been writtenand exercised, honed to near perfection inthe hope that they would never be used.Businesses must continue in theaftermath of an incident and much iswritten about the importance of havingeffective plans in place, this need hasbeen evidenced in the aftermath of 9/11and 7/7.

In more recent times it has beenrecognised that business continuitymeans more than having alternative sites,tamper free and robust IT systems and offsite facilities. These are essentialcomponents of any business but it is thestaff who will enable the company to moveforward from the chaos of a majorincident.

A major incident results in casualtiesand one way of ensuring that the businessdoes not become a casualty is to take careof the staff who may have become victimsof the incident.

Being a victim is potentially damagingand life changing even if life is notthreatened. A great deal of work has beencarried out by psychologists in recentyears into trauma and the effects on thosetouched by disaster. It is important toexamine these exposures and, in thecurrent climate, it is crucial to explore therelationship between terrorism andtrauma and to understand how an act ofterrorism might affect an industry’sworkforce. However we must alsoremember that traumatic events canhappen on a day to day basis and are notall large scale disasters, there are themajor personal disasters that affectsmaller numbers of people but can beequally devastating. These include violentcrime within the work place and death orinjury from suicide or road trafficcollisions.

In 1981 Taylor and Fraser produced a

procedures to put in place in theimmediate aftermath of those events.

There is a moral requirement to meetthe psychological needs of employees andin recent years there has been anincrease in legislation to underpin this`duty of care` which makes themanagement of stress in the workplacean important issue.

There are clear business continuityconcerns if this duty of care is not anestablished culture within the company.Stress may result in an increase inaccidents and expensive errors with anaccompanying decrease in morale – all ofwhich may be detrimental to the companyboth in image and profit.

Any post trauma support programmerequires commitment from seniormanagement, a written policy should bedeveloped and realistic resourcing isessential. This is not an area in which tocut costs – ultimate costs could be hugeif initial outlay is skimped. The benefits ofgetting this right are incalculable; thecosts of getting it wrong may beincredible!!

Guidance on dealing with trauma in theworkplace:1. Acknowledge the importance of Duty of

Care in relation to stress and distress2. Remember – it is your staff who will help

business recovery from the chaos of amajor incident

3. Understand the implications for thecontinuity of business

4. Individuals will have individual responsesand reactions relating to the trauma,some of these reactions may surpriseyou, all of them are normal

5. Respect each reaction as individual anddo not judge

6. Develop a post trauma supportprogramme in advance of an incident

7. Resource this programme realistically8. Do not skimp on staff care

Remember: The benefits of gettingthis right are incalculable; the costs ofgetting it wrong may be incredible!!

list of types of `levels of victim`, there is asimilar description used called the `rippleeffect` or `concentric circles`. The mostlikely people to suffer acute stressreaction are those closed to the point ofimpact and so received maximumexposure to the event. Within a companysetting however there may be a seriouseffect on others in the organisation withperhaps some distress for those outsidethe immediate workforce who may identifywith the victims. (eg Banks and FinanceCompanies in the City were shocked anddistressed by the death and injury of theircolleagues in New York even though theydid not personally know them).

Reactions may vary in strength andpresentation and will be influenced byprevious experiences, exposure to pasttraumas and personal copingmechanisms.

Rosie Murray (Awareness Raising forTrauma has been involved with a numberof companies in the aftermath of a singlesudden death. Colleagues are oftenseriously affected, both by the current lossand also by past losses and trauma, theeffects of which can be triggered by thecrisis and may re –emerge in full force.Some individuals may be powerfullyaffected even though not close to theincident or the person who died.

Decision making becomes very difficultfor high stressed staff and Rosie has hadexperience of senior managers asking forhelp with decisions they would normallydeal with as a matter of course.

It is also important to remember thatall those in the workforce will have familyand friends and they will fit thedescription of those affected although notdirectly involved. Whilst these people maynot be the direct responsibility of thecompany it would be a foolishmanagement who ignored the impact of adistressed family on an already stressedand traumatised member of staff.

It is crucial that any company shouldtake adequate steps to protect staff fromdamaging experiences. Part of theprocess should include preparation forevents over which the company have nocontrol and also to have supportive

Manchester Evacuation Map


“Emergency planning teams inManchester, like their colleagues elsewherein the UK, acted quickly to smooth theevacuation of hundreds of British passportholders from the bombing in Lebanon.

The international crisis, prompted by thekidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, was playedout nightly on our television screens duringJuly and August.

But the consequences of the conflictbetween the Israeli army and Hezbollah weresoon felt closer to home as British citizens,caught up in the fighting, clamoured to leaveBeirut.

The first Norman Davey, Manchester CityCouncil’s emergency planning manager,realised he might be involved in theevacuation came when he received a callfrom Manchester Airport to say that a flightfrom the RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus wasdue to leave within 24 hours.

“Like everyone else I had been followingthe story on television but it had neveroccurred to me that we would be directlyinvolved here in Manchester. I suppose thatwas because I had never really associatedlarge numbers of British citizens with theLebanon.

“That was one of the lessons we learnedfrom the exercise – that there are Britishcitizens all over the world and even the mostremote conflict can quickly have an impacthere at home.

In this instance, while 24 hours might notsound like a lot of notice to those outside theemergency planning profession, in fact it gaveus more time than usual to organise ourresponse.”

The city council assembled an 80-strongteam of representatives from the SalvationArmy, Red Cross, St John Ambulance,Government Office for the North West,Greater Manchester Passenger TransportExecutive, WRVS, Jobcentre Plus,Immigration Service, Manchester Airport’sterminal and security sections and its ownhousing and social services teams to copewith the demands of more than 600 evacueesarriving at Manchester Airport on three flightsbetween 20 and 22 July. Two other flightswere cancelled at short notice.

Similar flights arrived at Gatwick, EastMidlands and Stansted airports during thatperiod.

The city council had experience of theKosovan evacuation in 1999 in which 15planes carrying evacuees landed inManchester. It also responded to similarevacuations of British passport holdersfollowing the Asian tsunami, the bombing ofEgyptian resorts and the Mexican hurricane.

At Manchester Airport, the normal

emergency planning had primarily focused onthe possibility of an aircraft accident and theidentification of suitable areas for dealing withsurvivors and distressed friends and relatives.

In fact, because the airport was still fullyoperational, the designated reception areacould not be used and the team had to quicklymove to untried facilities at Gate 20, TerminalOne.

The procedure aimed to separate thoseevacuees who needed support on arrival fromthose who were happy to make their own wayonward from the airport. The main concernwas to ensure that people needing supportwere dealt with before passing throughpassport control and immigration, as themajority of support was only available airside.

Norman said: “On arrival the receptioncentre team offered everyone refreshments,toiletries and support while they were waiting.We also tried to avoid a situation in whichpeople were crowding round the tables usedto conduct interviews, so we created aphysical barrier between this area and therest of the reception centre

“In fact, we had five tables for interviewsand a further five waiting areas behind wherethose next in line could wait.”

The majority of those wanting supportwere in need of advice on accommodationand transport. Many wanted to travel on toLondon.

“The main demand was for travelwarrants for their onward journey and, insome instances, for overnightaccommodation. Anticipating that, we hadmade arrangements for local taxis, a coachfirm and a nearby hotel to be on standby.”

Information on the number of evacuees oneach flight was not known until it was in theair. The first flight brought 67 evacuees toManchester, the second a more daunting 435,a number which at times threatened tooverwhelm the team’s resources.

There were also individual humandifficulties. Some evacuees were still in adistressed state having been caught updirectly in the bombing. One woman had losther sister in a direct hit on the building wherethey were living.

One of the passengers evacuated had lostboth legs in an earlier bombing incident andneeded a wheelchair for his onward journey.This prompted a 2.30am hunt across GreaterManchester for a wheelchair he could begiven. Wheelchairs and baby buggies wereavailable for evacuees on subsequent flights

The Regional Resilience Team fromGovernment Office for the North West wasinitially involved in the evacuation flights as anobserver but quickly found itself performing avital role.

Kathy Settle, Regional Resilience Directorat GONW, said: “We provided the link withcentral Government and in particular with theForeign Office in instances where individualevacuees were concerned about the safety offamily members left behind in Lebanon orwanted to arrange for them to be evacuated.

“We were also able to use our contacts atnational level to ensure that the next stage ofthe journey for evacuees went smoothly. Forinstance, a number of evacuees wanted totravel on to other countries to meet up withfamily members, and we liaised with theSpanish and Sierra Leonean Embassies tomake the necessary arrangements. We alsorealised a lot of people wanted to travel toLondon and worked with Virgin Trains to runa special late-night train from Manchesterafter all the scheduled services had ceasedfor the day. The effective working relationshipwe had developed with Virgin through our NWTransport Resilience Forum and recentexercises was invaluable in making this allhappen.”

Norman said: “We had never envisagedGONW being directly involved, but in fact wecouldn’t have done it without them. They werea vital link to the Foreign Office and used theircontacts with central Government to goodeffect.

“In one instance, we found three bags lefton a flight (one of which included fivepassports) which couldn’t be traced toanyone. In fact, Kathy and her teamdiscovered that their owners were still inCyprus and not due to fly to Stansted untillater that day. We also had one suitcase lefton the baggage carousel after all theevacuees had departed. Again, Kathy’s teamworked with the Foreign Office to find out whothe suitcase belonged to and managed toreunite all the lost bags with their owners.”

The processing of evacuees took just overtwo hours to complete each night.

So one year later what do I make of it all?Well, I knew it was going to be hard workfrom the outset, particularly with no studyleave from work (the price to pay for beingfunded by the County Council). Undertakingtwo modules back to back, twice, to ensure Iwas not studying when the baby arrived wasnot ideal. Neither was having to study everyevening and weekend at times. However, Iknew this from the start so I did not reallyhave an excuse, eventually it became thenorm no matter how tired I was by the end ofthe working day. What I had not bargained forwas my lengthy involvement in the Buncefieldincident, which meant a deferral for mysecond piece of coursework. Complicationswith my wife’s pregnancy at the same timebrought studying to a rather abrupt halt, and

introduced yet another source of stress. In theend, I had three pieces of coursework tocomplete in the final semester, almost thesame amount of work as full time students.Having a young family also means thatdistractions tend not to be self inflicted,although looking back, I think the breaking upof lengthy periods of studying probablyhelped.

I am not the world’s most motivatedperson, so it was hard work sitting downtrawling through one journal article afteranother, particularly when you can feel youreyes closing slowly. I did not realise it hadinvolved such hard work and commitment inthe last four months, until afterwards whenwinding down and rediscovering the familyagain was quite difficult. In a strange way Ikind of miss having to study in the eveningand at weekends. I suppose my motivationwas helped, by the fact that I found the courseand the work interesting and actuallyenjoyable.

Would I do it again with the benefit ofhindsight? The answer is most definitely yes,although I would prefer not to have thebacklog of coursework at the end of the year.It has certainly improved my knowledge of

emergency planning and helped put all theexperience in context. It has also introduced arange of wider issues that I would probablynot have encountered through just work.Effectively this has meant looking at workissues from a far wider perspective than therequirements of the Civil Contingencies Act.The challenge now is to try to bring all this, tothe work of my team and the widerdepartment (although my colleagues mightnot always realise it!). On a personal level, notonly will a professional qualification help indeveloping my emergency planning career, itmight also open up other opportunities.

Hopefully, Hertfordshire County Councilalso benefits. Not only do they have a moreknowledgeable and enthusiastic member ofstaff (if at times tired from studying theprevious evening), there is the differentapproach to work, and the identification ofnew initiatives and good practice. Havingdiscussed this with my manager at a recentperformance and development appraisal, it isworth pointing out, that physicallydemonstrating the learning and the impact interms of work is particularly difficult, as it isoften very subtle. My manager has beensupportive, and I have effectively been

allowed to find a natural balance between thepersonal and work related learning.

At the end of the day, the only person whocan decide whether it is a good idea or not isyou. Everybody is different in terms of ability,work background and their reasons forwanting to undertake the course. Whilst Iwould not recommend doing it the hard way,it has demonstrated that you certainly needthe commitment to get started in the firstplace, the motivation to keep on going, theinterest in the subject to undertake all thereading and research required, and above allthe enthusiasm to actually make it anenjoyable experience . Having the supportand understanding of the lecturers certainlyhelped make things less stressful, butultimately, it is the continued support at homethat makes all the difference. When thecourse started Tom and Lucy were constantlystressing the importance of finding a work-study-life balance. How true they were. I amnot entirely sure whether I managed to getthis balance right at any point in the last tenmonths, but I must have done somethingright to have finally got through the first year.However, my wife would probably say dropthe “life” bit and it would be more appropriate!

Manchester Evacuees


Project Argus engagesbusinesses in LeedsSean Morris, Emergency Planning Officer, Leeds City Council

At an event in early October atLeeds University, the NationalCounter Terrorism Security Office(NaCTSO) delivered the first ‘ProjectArgus’ seminar to over 60 largebusinesses situated in and aroundLeeds city centre.

Project Argus is an innovative anddynamic half-day seminar developinga desk-top ‘terrorist incident’ exercisefor the business community. The aimof the seminar is to increaseawareness of the role of businesses inmajor incidents and the importance ofdeveloping business continuity andemergency response plans.

The event was run by Richard Flynnof NaCTSO, who has helped to developthe business continuity booklets‘Expect the Unexpected’ and ‘Secure inthe Knowledge’ with London First andthe Business Continuity Institute.Project Argus in Leeds was facilitatedby Leeds City Council’s Peace andEmergency Planning Unit and WestYorkshire Police, and opened by theDivisional Commander for Leeds citycentre, Chief Superintendent GeoffDodd.

Project Argus combines a series ofvideo and audio feeds into developing acredible terrorist attack scenario. Itsought from the businesses what theirresponse would be, and what plansthey have in place, to deal with theeffects of the scenario on their ownbusiness. Information was also givenin Project Argus about recovery issues,business continuity and hostilereconnaissance. Emergency PlanningOfficers from local authorities aroundWest Yorkshire and South Yorkshireand officers from West YorkshirePolice, Cleveland Police and WestYorkshire Fire and Rescue Service

helped to facilitate discussion in sixsyndicate groups, and also commentedon the wider emergency response.

All delegates received an Argusworkbook. This provided furtherinformation and background askingthem to develop plans and proceduresso that their own businesses are moreprepared for the huge effects of aterrorist incident. It also gavebusinesses the resources to conductsuch exercises in a similar manner fortheir own staff. A key additionalcomponent of Argus was to providebusinesses with realistic expectationsof the wider emergency response.Businesses were urged to develop awide range of plans around issuessuch as hostile reconnaissance,command and control, ‘invacuation’(creating safe areas within a businesspremises) and considering evacuation‘grab-bags’ or ‘battle boxes’.

Project Argus is being developed asa UK initiative and Leeds was used totest the response of businesses to it.The feedback from businesses wasvery positive and there are plans to runArgus again in Leeds in 2007 for othertypes of incidents and to includerepresentatives from the night-timeeconomy.

Project Argus goes ‘live’ nationallyearly in 2007 and around 20 largecities have been identified to hostseminars. Police Counter TerrorismSecurity Advisers (CTSAs) are alsogoing to be trained in the key aspectsof Project Argus with the aim ofdelivering it to a further 200 smallertowns around the country.

Richard Flynn of NaCTSOcommented:

“In Project Argus, we have puttogether a package to engage the

business community with a realisticincident in order to encourage them tounderstand the necessity of developinggood business continuity andemergency response plans. The eventin Leeds has allowed us to fine-tunethe scenario and the event in generaland confirmed the benefits forbusinesses of this type of approach.”

“I look forward to developing Arguswith other UK cities to help in buildingup resilience across our town and citycentres. Argus has been developed toconsider the problems of a majorincident in a crowded high streetwhere command and control will bedifficult to develop in the early stagesof a major incident. Co-operation fromthe business community will help theemergency services in their responseto the incident and could be critical forthe medium and longer term issuesthat will have to be resolved.”

Over the past 5 years Leeds CityCouncil’s Peace and EmergencyPlanning Unit (PEPU) has developed alarge network of businesses in andaround the city centre to considerbusiness continuity and emergencyplanning issues. The Leeds BCPNetwork has around 120 members andover 400 e-mail contacts. ProjectArgus Leeds follows-on from theNetwork’s successful combination of‘case study style’ BCP seminars andworkshops on key business continuityand emergency planning issues.

For further details on Project ArgusLeeds and the Leeds BCP Networkplease contact:Sean MorrisLeeds City Council EmergencyPlanning on (0113) 247 4341 [email protected].

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‘Body bags’ hasn’t exactly been a product that has seen muchinnovation over the years. Often a secondary product for manycompanies, the supply of body bags has been largely dominated by UScompanies and packaging suppliers. So it’s quite refreshing to hear ofa UK company who have taken the industry head on and developed, inconjunction with the NHS, emergency services, the British TransportPolice and a number of Funeral Directors, a high quality range ofproducts that respond to the specific needs of an emergency ormortuary situation.

‘We felt that existing products on the market simply didn’t have thehygienic containment or maneuverability that the emergency servicesneed,’ explains Jenny Sadeh, Sales Director of Foxhaven (UK) Ltd, ‘ourapproach has been to listen to the users within the emergency servicesand to bring fresh thinking and innovation to the features andconstruction of the product.”

Based in Manchester, Foxhaven have developed a range ofproducts that include “grab handles” as standard and a thick gaugePEVA welded and stitched material, to eliminate splitting and leakage,and are available in a range of colours and sizes.

Further information contact: Jenny Sadeh, Foxhaven (UK) LtdEmail: [email protected]: 0161-703-3999


History of Pipe MinesIn the early years of the Second World

War when the possibility existed of aninvasion by Germany, pipe mines wereinstalled under all airfields within 10miles of the southern and easterncoastlines of England. These pipe minesvaried in length from 30ft to 100ft long (in10 ft sections) and were pushed into theground at an angle. Should an invasionhave become imminent, the mines wouldhave been detonated thereby denyingaccess to the landing of enemy aircraft.Most of these mines were removed in theyears following the war.

In April this year a Second World Warpipe mine was discovered during routineLand Quality surveys which were carriedout with associated work for the sale ofthe Daedalus airfield site, Lee On TheSolent located on the south east coast ofHampshire. A further full assessment ofthe site revealed a total of 20 potentialpipe mines. Although none of the pipemines had any initiation charges (fuses)and there was no danger of aspontaneous detonation, the MoD had aduty of care to remove them from the site.

Clearance OperationOnce the full survey of the airfield had

been completed by the Defence LogisticsOrganisation, the data was passed toQinetiQ (MoD scientists), who usedcomputer imagery and modelling toestablish the parameters of the safetycordon. Two safety zone distances forevacuation were advised of 750 metres forthe periods when the Army’s ExplosivesOrdnance Disposal Team were carryingout the excavation works, and 300 metresfor the periods when the EOD team weremaking safe the pipe mines.

The poor condition of the ordnance andit’s volatile nature required that the pipemine excavation needed to be carried outremotely from 500 metres, using state ofthe art remote controlled diggingequipment.

The EOD Team grouped the 20 pipemines into five separate work groupscentred over five separate areas. It wasestimated that each group could possiblyrequire 5 days to be made safe, thereforethe clearance work would take place overa five week period. It was anticipated thata 750m exclusion zone would be requiredon the Monday of each week anddepending on what was found when thepipe mine was exposed, would hopefullybe reduced to the 300m exclusion zone

for the remainder of that work week.Outside of the Daedalus site the 750m

exclusion zones encompassed some 1200houses, 2 schools, 9 residential carehomes, the Maritime and CoastguardAgency and many businesses. On sitemany businesses were required toevacuate as were the MCA’s Helicopterand Hampshire Constabulary’s AirSupport Unit.

To alleviate the effect that thisoperation would have on the localpopulation and to minimise the roadcongestion, a working window of 0930 –1600 Monday to Friday was strictlyadhered to ensuring those evacuatedwere able to return to their homes in theevening.

Local Authority RoleBecause of the nature of this incident

and the fact that it affected two districtswithin the County Fareham and Gosport,Hampshire County Council took the roleof lead agency acting as honest brokerthroughout the clearance works /evacuations. It managed a successfulmulti agency response, resulting from thecommitment and integrated approach ofall of the agencies involved and the threeauthorities staff.

To facilitate a coordinated responseHampshire County Council establishedseveral forums under which all agenciesinvolved could meet at regular intervals.These consisted of a Stakeholders Forum,Off Site Working Group, TrafficManagement Group and a Welfare Group.

The Stake Holder Forum includedrepresentatives from the wider keyagencies involved such as MoD DefenceEstates, Maritime and Coastguard Agency(land owners), South East EconomicDevelopment Agency (land owners), ArmyExplosives Ordnance Disposal Team,Hampshire Constabulary and both theDistrict and County Councils EmergencyPlanning Teams. Initially a main stickingpoint of progress was whoseresponsibility the works were, andultimately, “who would pay”, an issue not

fully resolved until a couple of days beforethe operation start date, when DefenceEstates agreed legal and financial liability.The need to provide clear and accurateinformation for the public was a mainconcern, as was the potential loss ofbusiness for a number off smallindustries on the airfield site.

The Off Site Working Group undertookthe major off site planning for theevacuations that primarily revolvedaround exclusion zone data such asmaps, street names and vulnerablegroups produced by HCC EmergencyPlanning Unit and shared with allagencies involved. The key issuesconsidered were how to maintain theexclusion zone, the welfare of thosewithin the exclusion zone and how toconvey this information the public.

Hampshire Constabulary formed amajor part of the planning and were facedwith the difficult task of maintaining theexclusion zone. This required up to 120officers on the ground each day toascertain who would be staying withintheir homes and who would be evacuatingand to staff road closure points. Anarmoured Police Landrover patrolled thestreets and the Police plane flewoverhead ensuring the safety and securityof those remaining within the exclusionzone. On days when the exclusion zonereached as far as the sea the PoliceMarine Unit was utilised.

Warning and informing the public wasone of the most difficult components ofthe whole operation, and the one areathat had the potential to cause significantproblems and hardship if we got it wrong.A sustained evacuation over five weeks, amoving exclusion zone and theuncertainty as to whether the evacuationswould be required one day or five was adifficult message to convey. Onconfirmation of the operation go aheadtwo weeks prior to the start date, amassive Public Information Campaignwas launched. In one day a PressBriefing involving the key agencies wasundertaken, a concise leaflet wasdistributed to over 7,000 homes in thewider area, 200 posters were displayed inthe area and advertisements were placedin local newspapers providing a“Daedalus Evacuation Helpline”telephone number and inviting residentsto attend two public meetings held atlocal Community Centres.

A Traffic Management Group was setup comprising of representatives from

Hampshire County Council Highways,Gosport and Fareham Borough Council’sTraffic Management teams, HampshireConstabulary Traffic Management and theHighways Agency. The geographicallocation of Lee on the Solent at thesouthern end of a peninsular posed somemajor traffic management problems asthe road closures included a number ofthe main arterial routes. It wasrecognised from a very early date that onthe evacuation days the disruption to thetraffic network in an area already subjectto daily congestion would be significant.Because of this and the size of theoperation and resulting work load on thedepartments the services of trafficconsultants were employed.

An evacuation of this size was going topresent many welfare issues, therefore aWelfare Group consisting of Adult andChildren’s Services (Social Services), thePrimary Care Trust and a vast number ofVoluntary Agencies was established. Theprimary hurdle to overcome was theidentification of all vulnerable people inreceipt of some form of Social Servicescare located within the exclusion zone.Then to make an assessment of theirspecific needs, whether that bedomiciliary care, medical facilities orspecialist transport.

The Voluntary agencies involvedranged from the WRVS providing lightrefreshments, to the RSPCA on hand todeal with any animal welfare issues andRAYNET with back up communications.

Our Role During the OperationThroughout the operation our role of

Warning and Informing continued. TheBBC initiative Connecting in a Crisis wasengaged with BBC Radio Solent whoprovided hourly updates when anevacuation was in process. Pressbriefings, updates and interviews withagencies involved were provided to localmedia daily. A “Daedalus Webpage” wasadded to our website giving up to theminute information on evacuations androad closures. The Daedalus Evacuation

Helpline continued to run, and the fullytrained staff supervised by an EmergencyPlanning Officer received in excess of1,000 calls.

Silver Command was established atGosport Police Station on every day thatan evacuation was required from 0600until approximately 1730. HampshireConstabulary took the lead at silvercommand with Local Authorities, SouthCentral Ambulance Service and an ArmyLiaison present. Added benefits withinSilver Command included an aerial viewof the exclusion zone provided via a directlink with Hampshire Constabulary AirSupport Unit Boxer 2, and the presence ofPolice Control for the incident ensuringany issues raised by Police Officers on theground were able to be resolvedeffectively and by the most appropriateagency.

Two Rest Centres were established at0630 every day during the evacuations oneither side of the exclusion zone,transport was provided to and from theRest Centres in the form of coaches andDDA compliant minibuses. The RestCentres were staffed by trained Assistteams from our Adult and Children’sServices department and a HampshireCounty Council Liaison Officer. TheVoluntary Agencies played an invaluablepart within the Rest Centres with theSalvation Army providing breakfast forearly morning staff, the WRVS keepingboth staff and evacuees in tea and cakes.Either St Johns Ambulance or the Britishred Cross provided specialist transport forthose that required it and a first aidpresence. Entertainment was provided inthe form of toys and story telling forchildren and books and televisions foradults. A hot lunch was provided by ourown caterers HC3S with any food surplusto requirements being distributed to localhomeless shelters.

Lessons LearnedThe incident itself was unusual partly

because it was a sustained evacuationover such a long period of time but mainlybecause of the general perception thatthis was in fact not an emergency butrather a planned event. At times we faceddifficulty in sourcing staff to meet ourresponse as there was less of the “pulltogether team spirit” that is usuallygenerated in an emergency.

Due to the evacuation taking place overa longer time than is usually anticipatedwe found ourselves having to utilise all of

our Assist teams from across the Countysome of whom had not had recenttraining. We were fortunate on thisoccasion to have prior notice to ensuretraining needs were met however this hasidentified future training requirements.

In addition to the volunteer staff thatoperated in shifts to staff our DaedalusEvacuation Helpline we sourced anexperienced call centre manager tooperate the helpline at all times. Thisprovided an invaluable continuity in theoperation of the helpline and ensurednothing was missed during a staffhandover.

ConclusionHampshire County Council and all

agencies involved have cause to be proudof the excellent example of multi agencyworking that was the Daedalus Pipe MineClearance Operation. Prior to the start ofthe operation there was criticism via themedia over the lack of confirmedinformation available. This was asituation beyond the control of the mainagencies involved and resulted as a delayin confirmation of the operations goahead. During and after the operation theresponse from both the public and themedia has been overwhelming, aneditorial in a local newspaper ThePortsmouth News thanked all theagencies involved making the statement“the planners did their job, and thespecialists on the ground did theirs in theprofessional way we have come toexpect.”

This incident has proven our capabilityin maintaining a sustained evacuation andshown that we can perform over aprotracted period. Rather than sit backand breath a sigh of relief, we are takingon the lessons learned and improvingthose things that worked but can workbetter.

A Planned Emergency: Is There Such a Thing? Daedalus Pipe Mine Clearance


Temporary Mortuaries, Private CompanyInvolvement and the U.S.A. Comparison Mayday, Mayday...

Dudley M.B.C. started updating itsMass Fatality Temporary Mortuary Plan in2002 and although premises had beenpreviously identified, the roles andresponsibilities of the variousdepartments and partner agencies hadnot been included within the plan. In2003, the Home Office also issued thenew guidance on Dealing with MassFatalities, this placed addedresponsibilities on Local Authorities toequip the temporary establishment andwork with the Coroner to identify staff towork in the mortuary.

The concept of a large building withlittle facilities cannot be used if planningfor such eventualities. Health and Safetyand the care of the deceased, as well asstaff operating in the mortuary must betaken into account, as well as the needsof friends and relatives to be allowed toview their nearest and dearest’s remainsas laid down by the Lord Justice Clark’sreport on the Marchioness need to betaken into account.

The building therefore used by theLocal Authority is a local leisure centrebuilding which allows for an autopsy areafor 4 workstations with power and waterconnection, a changing and locker roomfor staff, together with ample shower andtoilet facilities. It also provides a largesports hall catering for police stripping,finger printing, photography etc. and thespace for the storage of some 70cadavers, a further sports hall will caterfor some 200 cadavers. Both halls havenow had water and 3 phase electricity tofacilitate cooling units to regulate thetemperature for the storage of bodies.Separate x-ray, 5 viewing rooms, officeareas and valuable storage have beenidentified within the premises. Theentrance to viewing areas is separatefrom the entrance into the mortuaryareas; outside there is ample car parkingarea for further offices or refrigerationunits.

To provide equipment for the mortuary,agreement was reached with the localhospital, Russells Hall, who rotate boxesof consumable items within the hospital

mortuary. These boxes can be removedat the time of opening the temporarymortuary with the knowledge that thecontents have not been stored for longperiods. The hospital has also agreed tosupply two autopsy tables, saws, x-rayequipment and screening. For furtheritems of equipment suppliers have beensourced and are included in the plan.

The hospital have also agreed tosupply one of each pathologist, mortician,odontologist and radiographer. Contactsfor further morticians, radiographers andanthropologist are included in thecontacts.

A meeting with Jackie Solloway,Manager/Funeral Director with 27 yearsexperience from Midcounties Co-operative Funeral Services, led to anagreement with the council to providefurther staff to assist in the mortuary.Jackie had been involved with thetemporary mortuary in Lockerbie andunderstood the pros and cons associatedwith premises, equipment and peopleincorporated into these plans.

Following a number of meetings, itwas agreed that if the mortuary were everneeded then the Co-operative FuneralServices would supply both experiencedfuneral personnel and equipment toassist the Coroner, Police and LocalAuthority.

Funeral Directors are well versed inthe care of the deceased, and helpingfamilies, relatives and friends in funeralpreparations and arrangements, theyhave the knowledge and are trained andused to dealing with the remains ofvictims and day to day mortuaryoperations.

Some training in the setting up of themortuary as to location and layout wasgiven to the Co-op’s Managers and thelocal authority to ensure that anyseminars or training events to do withtemporary mortuaries or mass fatalitiesare attended by the managers. I wouldrecommend any Emergency Planners toseek assistance from funeral directors inthe planning for mass fatalities.

At a training event in Birmingham, aconversation with an American lecturerabout the arrangements between Dudleyand the Co-op led to an invitation to bothparties to go to the U.S.A. to discussarrangements with Federal EmergencyManagement Agency, the DMORTtemporary mortuary arrangements andemergency services in April of this year.Following this, we received a visit from a

member of FEMA and DMORT inSeptember; the visit was arranged so thatthe two visitors and myself could addressthe National Co-operative FuneralManagers Association on temporarymortuary arrangements on both sides ofthe Atlantic. We also arrangedpresentations for our visitors by Police,Fire, Ambulance, Army and GovernmentOffice of the West Midlands on variousaspects of emergency planning. Theyalso attended a seminar which includedinformation on Birmingham City CentreEvacuation and Tornado, July 7th 2005London Temporary Mortuaryarrangements, Family Assistance Centresand the experiences of survivors of thePaddington Train Crash.

The visit proved a great success withall involved learning from each othersexperiences and arrangements, the mainoutcome was the similarities between ourwork on either side of the Atlantic.

It is hoped that the dialogue willcontinue.

The call ‘Mayday, Mayday’ from a ship in distress will see nearbyvessels, lifeboats and air-sea rescue helicopters racing to help. In theUK this will be co-coordinated by HM Coastguard from one of theirMaritime Rescue Co-ordination Centres (MRCC). This is often a fairlyroutine event, but what if the ship is a large oil tanker and it is leakingcargo?

This will turn a rescue operation into an emergency that requires aresponse from dozens of organisations that will involve several hundredpeople and will last many months. The aim of this article is to give anoverview of how such a disaster is managed. Not all the organisationsoperate UK wide, and those referred to only cover England. There areequivalent organisations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

As soon as the MRCC has the lifesaving operation underway, theywill notify a Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) Counter Pollution &Salvage Officer (CPSO) of actual or threatened pollution. For a majorspill the CPSO will initiate a ‘Tier Three’ response, in accordance withthe MCA’s National Contingency Plan. This plan has been tested duringincidents, such as the Sea Empress and the Braer, and during annualexercises. The plan is revised regularly to incorporate lessons learned.

If the pollution is likely to come ashore, this will involve theestablishment of three response cells and one advisory cell. Theadvisory cell is the Environment Group (EG) and it is responsible forproviding environmental and public health advice to the response cells.Core EG members are the Environment Agency, Natural England,Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and theHealth Protection Agency. Others represented may include the MCA,local authority, Food Standards Agency, Department of Trade andIndustry, animal welfare bodies, and local environmental groups.

A Salvage Control Unit (SCU) will oversee efforts to salvage thetanker and minimise the amount of oil that is released. The Secretaryof State’s Representative for Marine Salvage and Intervention (SOSREP)leads the SCU. Previous pollution incidents have occurred, or beenmade worse, by ship’s masters and owners delaying the salvageoperation. To avoid this, SOSREP now has powers to intervene and takepositive action. Other members of the SCU include the salvage

company, representatives of the ship’s owners or their insurers, aCPSO, an Environmental Liaison Officer, and the Harbour Master.

A Marine Response Centre (MRC) will take control of the at searesponse. This unit is responsible for assessment and monitoring,spraying dispersant (using ships and aircraft), mechanical recoveryoperations and cargo transfer. The MCA take the lead in the MRC, withsupport from a Defra fisheries officer, plus liaison officers from thelocal authority, the Environment Group, and any harbour affected.

A Shoreline Response Centre (SRC) will take control of the on-shoreresponse. Cleaning up the beaches, rocks, and other shoreline types isa massive task. Although specialist equipment and heavy plant will beused, the operation is heavily dependent on human effort. Hundreds of

them carrying out unpleasant and difficult work using hand tools.The SRC has a local authority lead and technical support from the MCA.Others represented in the SRC include the Environment Agency, otherlocal authorities, the Environment Group, and harbours.

Five functional teams are established in the SRC. A ManagementTeam, usually chaired by the local authority Chief Executive, willdetermine policy and priorities, authorise expenditure, approve publicand press information and liaise with central government.

A Technical Team determines an appropriate strategy, allocatesresources, monitors progress, and liaises with forward controls. Theyalso have sub groups for waste management and health & safety.Waste management is a major headache, especially as theenvironmental regulators want as little as possible sent to landfill.

A Procurement Team obtains the necessary resources. They alsomaintain financial records and monitor the effective use of allocatedresources. Recovering costs from the polluter, or one of the tankercompensation funds, requires detailed evidence. Not only receipts andauthorisations, but also evidence that expenditure was reasonablyincurred and that resources were appropriately used.

A Media and Public Relations Team arranges media briefings andinterviews, and provides public advice via help lines, websites, leafletsetc. Finally, an Information and Administration Team is responsible forall message handling, record keeping, communication facilities, minutetaking, updating information boards and maps, and catering.

With interlinking national, local authority and harbour plans,underpinned by training and exercises, the UK is as prepared as anycountry can be for such incidents. However, we still keep our fingerstightly crossed!

Ian Skidmore, Head of Contingencyand Disaster Management, DudleyMetropolitan Borough Council

Tony Morris, Chair of the Emergency Planning Society’s Oil Pollution Professional Issue Group


The Welfare of Stranded Motorists – The Road AheadBy Tom Bennett, Bedfordshire County Council and Anthony Aston, Highways Agency

Bedfordshire County Council in conjunctionwith the Bedfordshire and Luton LocalResilience Forum (BLLRF) are one of the firstcounty councils in England to start developingwelfare provisions for motorists who couldbecome stranded in the event of a majorincident on the county’s only motorway, the M1.

High profile events on the M11 in nearbyEssex over the past few years have resulted intraffic queues of up to 12 miles and increasedthe profile of stranded motorists. BedfordshireCounty Council’s Civil Contingencies Unit areworking closely with the Highways Agency,Luton Borough Council, Bedfordshire Policeand the Bedfordshire and Luton EmergencyVolunteer Executive Committee (BLEVEC) todevelop a scheme to provide food, water, andwarm blankets at a series of emergencyreception centres within a mile of themotorway. Key locations just off the motorwayare also being looked at to set up welfarestations for Traffic Officers to come and collectprovisions to take to the stranded motorists.The welfare stations will be manned byvolunteer services such as the WRVS, BRCSand Raynet.

The Highways Agency is the governmentbody responsible for maintaining and runningEngland’s motorways and trunk roads. It has

1200 uniformed Traffic Officers patrolling thecountry’s motorways helping to spot incidentsand clear them quickly to allow the traffic tokeep moving. It has overall responsibility forany road users stranded on the motorwaynetwork and is working with its stakeholders todevelop national guidance for the provision ofwelfare to motorists during major incidents.

Through the Traffic Officer Service, theHighways Agency is improving its ability tooperate the motorway network and promotingmessages encouraging drivers to prepareproperly for long journeys. During majorincidents, the Agency concentrates on trying torelease any traffic trapped behind the incident.This may be by working with the police to openlanes past the incident or using the TrafficOfficers to conduct a process called rearwardrelief, where the motorway is closed and thetraffic at the back of the queue is turned roundand escorted back to the nearest junction. Insome cases they may also be able to cut thecentral reservation and use the othercarriageway to alleviate the jams.

It is for the above reasons that theHighways Agency usually recommend thatmotorists stay with their vehicles, as it is verydifficult to clear the queues and get themotorway flowing again if people have

abandoned their vehicles. They do howeverrecognise that in the most extreme cases,there may be a need to provide welfare tomotorists away from the motorway. It is for thisreason that they are working with BedfordshireCC on this innovative pilot project.

All parties recognise that the project maybe subject to change once national guidelinesare published, but Bedfordshire County Councilhave developed an effective interim solution,identifying strategic locations along the M1 forpotential emergency reception centres. Theseare all within one mile of the motorway, sodrivers could walk to them, even if the weatherwas very poor. In extreme cases it may bepossible for local authorities to transportpeople, but it is envisaged that this optionwould only be used to protect life and avoidserious health problems.

Bedfordshire County Council have workedeffectively in partnership with the HA and localauthorities within the county to provide asimple solution to help customers in the eventof a major incident. The wider implications andthe national guidance on roles andresponsibilities are still being developed, butthis local level partnership could yet prove to begood model for welfare provision.

• Completed aerial photographic recordof the Northern Irish coastline

• Produced a Northern Irish Coastal GIS• Establishing an environmental baseline

in respect of the coast • Purchased an oil spill model • Reviewing a number of the existing

booming plans and drawing up somenew ones

• Purchased a current meter to helpvalidate existing booming plans Pembrokeshire County Council

• Improved dissemination to local keystakeholders of pre-incident planning

• Undertaking a risk assessment of thePembrokeshire and Ceredigioncoastline to identify high risk areas inrelation to pollution from shipping

• Reviewing a number of our existingbooming plans and drawing up somenew ones

• Purchased a command and controlsystem

• Testing wifi infrastructure for availabilityof communication links withinPembrokeshire for incident informationtransfer

If you want to know more about theEROCIPS Project, there is an informativewebsite available to the public atwww.erocips.org


EROCIPS

UK takes the lead in major EuropeanUnion project – Emergency Response toCoastal Oil, Chemical and Inert Pollutionfrom Shipping (EROCIPS)

The shoreline response to pollutionfrom shipping accidents represents one ofthe greatest resource and manage¬mentchallenges likely to be faced bygovernments and other organi¬sationsinvolved in spatial planning for thesustainable use of coastal assets. Not onlydoes this kind of pollution threaten thedelicate natural environment, but theindirect consequences of a pollutionincident can be extremely damagingsocially and economically, with loss oftourism confidence and income fromfisheries under¬mining the economy ofthe polluted coast.

The aim of the EROCIPS project is the‘development of common, trans-nationalmethodologies, tools and techniques fordealing with the shoreline response tocoastal pollution incidents, transferableacross the EU, in order to support thesustainability of the sea transport system’.

What? Work on the EROCIPS transnational

partnership project is well underway. TheProject, aims to help countries in theAtlantic Area develop a commonunder¬standing of, and approach to, thethreat of coastal pollution from shipping,is now entering its third and final year.

Why?Shipping is normally a safe and

efficient way of transporting goods aroundthe world. It forms a vital part of the worldtrade industry. However, groundings,

collisions, fires and hull failures do occuroccasionally, and when they do thepotential impacts on the marineenvironment and coastal communities aresubstantial. There can be long and short-term damage to the natural and socio-economic environment.

Over the last 10 years there have beena number of major oil spills in the AtlanticArea.

Remember these catastrophicincidents?• Sea Empress at Milford Haven in 1996,

which released 72,000 tonnes of crudeoil and 480 tonnes of fuel oil affecting200km of coastline.

• Erika off Brittany in 1999, where 19,000tonnes of oil were spilled affecting400km of coastline.

• Prestige in 2002 five miles off the coastof Galicia which broke in two spilling60,000 tonnes of oil.

Although it is important that action istaken to protect our coasts and coastalcommunities from these threats, it is notpossible (or desirable) to halt the shippingactivity past our coastlines. We have toensure that this important industrycontinues. Recent experiences ofincidents have convinced authorities thatthey need to be more prepared and readyto launch a robust response in the eventof an incident. Due to the fact that coastalpollution is not restricted by national andpolitical boundaries, it was agreed that acollaborative approach to coastalpol¬lution would best serve nationaleconomic and environmental interests.The EROCIPS Project has been developedto address these challenges.

How?The sustainability of the shipping

industry can be improved throughminimising its environmental and negativeeconomic impacts. The shipping industrycontributes to reduce the risk of incidentsoccurring by continually looking atmeasures to prevent collisions,groundings and hull failures.Governments with coastlines that are at ahigh risk of pollution from shipping canalso contribute by ensuring that in theevent of an accident they are wellprepared to provide a robust shorelineresponse.

The EROCIPS Project’s goal is toexplore prevention methodologies andprovide all of the necessary information tothe responders and decision-makersinvolved in shoreline counter pollutionoperations following a shipping incident.The type of information required by thoseresponsible for organising the response toan event varies from an understanding ofoceanographic currents to how to trainand equip clean-up personnel. In order toaddress this huge challenge the EROCIPSProject is divided into 8 sub-projectscalled work packages. Each work packagedelivers outputs specific to one aspect ofpollution response and is led by a Partnerwith relevant expertise (see table).

Who?EROCIPS is a strong partnership with

all project participants having first handexperience of dealing with major coastlinepollution cleanup. Sixteen Partners fromsix different countries are workingtogether in a co-ordinated approach toprotecting our coastline throughcombining experience, technology,equipment, resources, and agreeing amethodology. This will strengthen Partnercountries’ responses to potentiallypolluting shipping incidents, and willprovide a framework which can be usedby other countries around the world toimprove their shoreline response topollution from shipping.

Within the UK the core Partners areDevon, Dorset and Pembrokeshire CountyCouncils, Devon Wildlife Trust and theEnvironment and Heritage Service,Northern Ireland. There are also localpartnerships includ¬ing a number ofcoastal Borough and Dis¬trict Authorities,the Unitary Authorities of Bournemouth,Poole, Torbay and Ceredigion in Wales,counterparts from the EnvironmentAgency and Natural England, as well asBournemouth University, thePembrokeshire Coast National ParkAuthority and the Countryside Council forWales. There are four French Partnersrepresent¬ing the coastal RegionalGovernments of Aquitaine, Pays de laLoire, Poitou-Charentes and Bretagne.

Spain and Portugal currently have threePartners each of whom is a mix of bothGovernmental and relevant technicalrepresentation.

Where?Through the six countries represented

on the EROCIPS Project much of theAtlantic Coast of Europe is involved, whichis important because it means that theProject area covers the area affected bymany of the significant polluting shippingincidents in the Atlantic Arc from 1967 to2005.

The EROCIPS budget is just over 6million euros, co-financed by theEuropean Regional Development Fundthrough Interreg IIIB and funding from theOffice of the Deputy Prime Minister. Thisfunding allows specialist work to becontracted out, making possible early andsignificant developments in Partners’ability to identify, analyse and deal withthe threat of coastal pollution based onbest practice, using the most up to datetechnology.

The purpose of the Project is to provideadded value to the shoreline response byproviding Regional and LocalGovernments with information to aid theirresponse structure in the event of ashipping pollution incident. The EROCIPSProject will not undertake statutory dutiesconnected with the production ofcontingency plans, where stipulated bymember nations’ own legislation.

Progress so far With one year of the project left to go,

the UK Partners are already reaping someof the benefits of EROCIPS. In addition tothe Project-wide outputs, the UKPartners’ shoreline response to coastalpollution has been strengthened throughreviews of existing booming plans anddrawing up plans where they did not

previously exist. More specifically the UKPartners have benefited in the followingways:• Sea Empress at Milford Haven in 1996,

which released 72,000 tonnes of crudeoil and 480 tonnes of fuel oil affecting200km of coastline.

• Erika off Brittany in 1999, where 19,000tonnes of oil were spilled affecting400km of coastline.

Devon County Council• Establishment of an online Emergency

Logging System• Establishment of baseline sediment

data for Devon’s coasts• Establishment of a team of coastal

survey volunteers trained and equippedto monitor pollutants from the shore

• Provision of Exercise Jurassic Spill – across border exercise major spillexercise to be held in 2007

• Purchase of electronic charting anddevelopment of a GIS systemDorset County Council

• Provision of Exercise Jurassic Spill – across border exercise major spillexercise to be held in 2007

• Establishment of a protocol for baselineenvironmental assessments in theevent of a major spill on the Dorsetcoast

• Development of online beach reportingforms using Oracle databases

• Development of the OILMAP spillmodelling system to allow a higherdegree of accuracy when using the spillprediction model to plan for a responsestrategy

• Environment and Heritage Service, Northern Ireland

• Completed a risk assessment of theentire Northern Irish coastline andidentified high risk areas in relation topollution from shipping

Geoff Gubb Tel: 0151 236 4141


Recovering human remains and forensicevidence from mass war graves or planecrashes are a few of the activities run by theInforce Foundation, a UK based registeredcharity.

'Building upon our successful massgrave and temporary mortuary simulationexercises for a group of Iraqi scientists andpolice personnel (2005), the InforceFoundation has been running trainingprogrammes in mass grave excavation andmass fatality incident mortuary operationsfor professionals and students. Inconjunction with the Dorset Police, Inforcehas also simulated an air crash site and setup of a temporary mortuary to help increasethe UK's capacity to deal with disaster victimrecovery and identification in a world proneto increasing numbers of transportationaccidents, natural disasters and terroristattacks 'says Margaret Cox, Chief Executiveand founder of Inforce.

She continues, ‘the trainees will gainhands on experience of all the elements oflarge-scale forensic investigations of thistype, equipping them with the necessaryskills required by investigating teams formass fatality incidents, war crimes andhuman rights investigations.’

This mass grave simulation, the first of itskind to be offered to the wider scientificcommunity will use state-of-the artsimulation techniques to faithfully reproduceall phases of the investigation from sitelocation to recovery and analysis of evidenceand human remains and presentation offindings. Each workshop begins with aseries of seminars outlining the overallcontext, the investigative process, planningand risk assessment, methods andtechniques of analysis, standards of practice,documentation, and chain of custody.Following this introduction, expertsupervisors with extensive experience ofatrocity crime investigations in the formerYugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, SierraLeone as well as mass fatality Incidentssuch as the Asian tsunami, Londonbombings, Selby rail crash, etc will guide the

team through each stage of the process astrainees gain hands-on experience in thepractical techniques.

Separate workshops have been devisedto reflect the two main parts of suchinvestigations: • Locating and recovering evidence and

human remains from the scene of crimeand mass grave site.

• Analysis of human remains and evidencein the temporary mortuary.

• In association with the Dorset Police, wehave also simulated an air-crash site toprovide a training scenario for disasterresponse team training.

Mass Grave Training HistoryIn August 2004, the Foreign and

Commonwealth Office commissionedInforce to design and deliver a trainingprogramme for Iraq that would provide amultidisciplinary group of Iraqi scientists,archaeologists and police officers with thenecessary skills to undertake the location,excavation, recovery and analysis of humanremains and other evidence from massgraves in Iraq.

Following this first six month longprogramme, a further two programmeswere provided, one training 12 of the firstgroup of trainees to be trainers and thesecond to train criminal investigators inforensic science awareness. Since thesuccessful delivery of these trainingprogrammes, one of the trainees has nowsuccessfully delivered two four-weektraining programmes in Forensic Pathologyand Medicine for twenty five Iraqi colleagues.They are now working as District surgeonsin the five districts of northern Iraq.

As a charity Inforce seeks to facilitate the

sharing of best practice amongst forensicpractitioners, disaster recovery teams andother key stakeholders such as industry,governments and humanitarianorganisations. From the 14th to 16thDecember 2006 Inforce will host its thirdAnnual International Forensic Conferenceand Exhibition at Bournemouth University.Key themes will include; Advances inForensic Science (including a key session onDisaster Victim Identification), Advances inForensic Imaging and Technology, Pathologyand Ethics and The Rwandan Genocide.

This year we are fortunate to have severalprominent keynote speakers such as HelenaRas, Chairperson, Interpol SteeringCommittee on Disaster Victim Identification,Mark Harrison, National Police SearchAdvisor, UK National Crime and OperationsFaculty, and Professor Margaret Cox, CEO ofInforce. More information about theconference and Inforce’s work can be foundat www.inforce.org.uk or you can contactMark Viner at: [email protected] or byph: (01202) 961346

About Inforce The Inforce Foundation is supported by

donors including Bournemouth Universityand is an International Forensic Centre ofExcellence for the investigation of genocide,crimes against humanity and war-crimesand mass disaster recovery. A key strengthof the organisation is that it is independent,impartial and international in terms of theirScientific Advisory Board Members,Supporters and Patrons. Together Inforcecomprises a wealth of multidisciplinaryscientific and legal expertise and experiencegained from post-conflict regions in almostall continents over the last ten years andmore.

The establishment of Inforce was inspiredby its Founder and CEO, Professor MargaretCox’s experience working in Kosovo in 1999(Margaret was, until recently also Head ofForensic and Bioarchaeological Sciences atBournemouth University). The need for thework is constantly reinforced by experiencesince that time working in countries such asIraq (2003-4), Rwanda (2002 - ongoing) andCyprus (2004-5). Inforce was formallyestablished in 2001 and has slowly but surelygrown in size, influence and reputationreflecting the establishment of a solid andinfluential base of support and expertise,and the successful completion of fundedprogrammes.

Trainees Get Hands-on Experience in MassGrave and Temporary Mortuary Simulation

Primary school pupils sitting vital SATS exams were back attheir desks just

three days after fire swept through classrooms, due to apioneering link-up between Staffordshire Fire and RescueService and ISS Damage Control.

More than £1m of damage was caused by the fire atLandywood Primary School, in Great Wyrley, which destroyedone school block and left thousands of pounds of computerequipment at risk.

ISS Damage Control specialists were on site within 45minutes of the call from the fire service and began theimmediate recovery and restoration of laptop computers, whichcontained critical information for the continued running of theschool and important SATS information.

The fast response was possible thanks to a ground-breakingscheme under which the fire service calls out ISS DamageControl’s disaster recovery teams as soon as a serious incidentis reported.

The service is designed to help businesses restore buildingsand equipment and be up and running in the shortest possibletime. ISS Damage Control provides initial free ‘first aid’ tovictims of fire and flood and, if acceptable to loss adjusters andinsurers, completes the recovery and restoration work.

Staffordshire Fire Service was the first to pilot the scheme,which has since been adopted by 10 further Fire and RescueServices.

Fire broke out on a Thursday afternoon at LandywoodPrimary School and a team of eight technicians from ISSDamage Control took over the recovery of computers and videoimaging equipment snatched to safety by fire officers.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue had worked closely with theschool to develop a fire safety programme for schools in thecounty. As a result the 185 pupils and their teachers knewexactly what to do when fire was spotted coming from acontainer used by roofing contractors.

It quickly spread to the roof but the school was evacuatedcalmly and safely within just one and a half minutes of thesighting. The block in which the fire took hold later had to bedemolished.

Colin Kite, Incident Response Manager for ISS DamageControl, said: “The school was going through SATSassessments, and laptops within the fire areas had criticalinformation on them.

“ISS Damage Control restoration technicians started workthe same evening, boarding up and arranging overnightsecurity. Major work began the following day with the removalof debris, extinguishing water and affected carpeting. Contentsfrom the severely damaged area were relocated to a secureholding area within the school building.

“The critical information on the laptops was downloadedfrom the damaged hard drives ready to be uploaded onto areplacement unit. The IT suite equipment was decontaminatedand installed within a replacement room within the main schoolblock. The main block of the school required a fulldecontamination to remove all smoke residues and odours’

The fire occurred on a Thursday and was pretty severe, with

an estimated building loss of £1m. However the school was back up andrunning on the following Monday with just one school day lost. The social andeconomic costs were greatly reduced as there was minimal disruption topupils and parents. The authority was not left with the task of finding analternative venue had the school been closed for longer.

Chris Bromley, Area Commander for South Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service, said: “There is no doubt that the partnership between ISS Damage

Control and firefighters working at the scene succeeded in the recovery ofvital and expensive IT equipment as well as the children's personalpossessions.

“I have personally worked with the ISS Damage Control teams on otheroperational incidents and what they are able to achieve in terms of damagelimitation and recovery is remarkable.”

Landywood Primary School Head Teacher, Alan Stockley, said: “I cannotspeak too highly of the service provided by the fire service and ISS DamageControl.

Most people probably don’t know ISS Damage Control exists untilsomething like this happens and I have to say I was extremely impressed withtheir service.

They very quickly set about clearing equipment from the school and took itaway to be restored. It was astonishing how much was recovered and howquickly it came back to us.

The savings they made in respect of computers and data recovery wasparticularly impressive.

I still have a picture in my mind of a firefighter holding a laptop that wasbadly melted with water dripping out of it. I would have thrown it away but ISStook it and restored 85 per cent of the information. It was like magic.”

Mr Stockley added: “Being the victim of a fire like this is an horrendousexperience but the trauma was considerably softened by the approach of thefire service and ISS Damage Control.

“Throughout the recovery period ISS kept us fully informed.Communication is so important for the victim and they ensured that we knewexactly what was happening all the way through the procedure.”

FIRE SERVICE LINK UP WITH RECOVERY SPECIALISTS PRAISED BY FIRE HIT SCHOOL


The end of the Second World War sawthe ‘real’ birth and development ofcommercial civil aviation into the meansof mass transport that it has becometoday. Safety was, is, and will continue tobe an essential part of the industry thusmaking air travel the success that it istoday and still the safest means oftransport.

The founding of the International CivilAviation Organisation (ICAO) ensured thatinternational standards of safety could beestablished worldwide. These standardsare both defined and refined in the UK bythe Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), and partof this structure has been theestablishment of the minimum standardsnecessary for an aerodrome or airport tooperate for public use. An intrinsicelement of the requirements to gain anAerodrome Licence is the establishmentof an “emergency plan”, i.e. the foresightand ability to recognise and deal with anyaeronautical emergencies that may arise.A key and explicit element of thatemergency plan is the provision of aRescue and Fire-Fighting Service (RFFS)commensurate with the scale and natureof the aviation operations carried out atthat particular aerodrome. This is seenby the provision of a Fire Service withspecialist equipment designed to providean initial, or phase one, response to anylife threatening aircraft incident/accidentthat may occur during that aerodrome’shours of operation.

This element is now a well establishedpart of an aerodrome’s contingencyresponse to any emergency that mayoccur and the specialist training and

equipment designed to meet theparticular issues faced in an aircraftincident are well identified.

Although a highly visible aspect of theresponse mechanism, the RFFS is only apart of an aerodrome’s emergencyresponse. A further essential element ofthe licensing requirement is to have acomprehensive plan to deal with varyingdegrees of emergency, from that whichmaybe seen to pose a threat (e.g. fuelspill), to that which is an aircraft accident.

The key in any plan is preparation. Theterms of their licence requiresaerodromes to carry out emergencyresponse exercises at least every twoyears, alternating between day and nightsituations. During the intervening perioda range of other exercises may beconducted. These can be focused onspecific elements ranging from testingalert and communications systems todealing with welfare issues, and may bephysical or table-top exercises as deemedappropriate.

In order to impose both structure andorganisation to their response mostaerodromes establish an EmergencyPlanning Committee that encompassesall the emergency services, localauthorities, airlines and handling agents.Each committee’s constitution is designedto produce a co-operative framework planthat provides guidance to all those likelyto be involved in the event of anemergency at (or near) the aerodrome.

So, what are the challenges faced byairports in their emergency responsestructures? These probably fall into threeareas; resource, communication and co-

ordination. Whilst the emergency may becentred upon an airport the challengespresented can only be met with dueconsideration to and the support of the‘blue light’ organisations, local authorityemergency planning organisations and, ofcourse, respect of any legal requirements.

Firstly, Communications, somethingfamiliar to everyone. The speed at whichthe ‘news media’ moves today, whilst onlyof secondary consideration in the face ofan emergency, is probably one of thebiggest challenges to the successfulmanagement of an emergency situation.The life saving response is paramount inany emergency situation but the publicperception of how an incident has been (isbeing) dealt with may be, and can be,blown out of all proportion by a mediakeen to respond to the current publicdemand for up to the minute reporting. Itis vital, therefore, to ensure that onlycurrent, verifiable information is providedwhen dealing with an exceptionalsituation. This is not easy. The confidentand authoritative delivery of regularupdates has proven invaluable in the past.If current, accurate information is notprovided there is a danger that unverifiedconjecture will promote a view of thesituation which, although inaccurate andmisconceived, may prove difficult tocorrect. This in turn may distract fromthe essential process of dealing with theemergency incident itself.

Second Co-ordination. Despite the factthat most aeronautical incidents involveairlines or other agencies, airportsunderstandably become the focal point forboth relatives and friends as well as themedia. There are a huge number ofpeople required to ensure a suitable andbalanced response to an emergencyincident. Every aspect, from the essentiallife maintaining care of survivors, throughto the basic provisions of food and rest forthose supplying care and support in thefield has to be considered.

Third Resource. The managementstructures within airports tend to becomparatively small when consideredagainst the scale and volume ofoperations. By their nature airports are afocal point, often accommodating airlineswho have few direct representativesbased on site and, in some cases, nodirect representatives at all; the airlinehaving elected to appoint a handling agentto act on their behalf. In these cases theairport itself is relied upon to fill thevacuum left by the lack of airline

representation. This often results in a relianceon airport staff assuming roles varying fromwelfare support to acting as runners.

Although this article has centred on the issuesto be faced in the event of an aeronauticalemergency, a contingency response can be requiredin any number of situations. In broad terms, thechallenges are similar in any emergency situation thataffects or involves the public and requires a rapidappropriate response. The August 2006 security eventrequired the application of contingency procedures toensure that enhanced Department for Transport (DfT)requirements were applied without delay. The heightenedsecurity measures required increased search and screeningprocedures, and the prohibition of some articles of cabinbaggage; all of which were introduced with immediate effect.Tactical evaluation of the enhanced requirements was carriedout and, in this case, activation of the co-ordination centre wasdeemed unnecessary. The key issue, once air traffic hadstarted to flow again, was the need for the additional resourcesrequired to carry out increased assessments and minimise theadverse impact of these security measures.

Once established the co-ordination of these additionalresources and the communication of the revised requirements tocustomers and partner organisations ensured that the airportcontinued to operate with minimum disruption and delays.

Birmingham Airport

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires all‘category 1’ responders, which now includes LocalAuthorities, to have resilient arrangements inplace to ensure that their emergency planningfunction is always in a position to respond in theevent of a major disaster.

Chelmsford Borough Council’s EmergencyPlanning Unit have attempted to achieve this byrefurbishing their Emergency Control roomwhich was originally built in the basement ofthe Councils’ offices to nuclear protectedstandards in the early 1980s. This has nowbeen updated to provide a 10-position callcentre with wireless telephone headsets andcomputer terminals linked to Atlas AIMSspecialist incident management software. Toachieve maximum resilience, a dedicatedserver specifically for emergency planning hasbeen installed within the protectedaccommodation of the control room; the centrealso has its own UPS and generator backuppower supply.

In addition, the EPU have designed a MobileControl Vehicle based on a high-roof lwb FordTransit van which has been fitted out to a highspecification by Ford SVP of Earls Colne in Essex,to maximise the use of space within the vehicleand provide comprehensive radio, telephone andcomputer links, plus hot & chilled drinking water,

cooker, air conditioning etc., to duplicate almost allof the facilities available within the Emergency

Control Room itself.The vehicle is designed for multipurpose use so it

may be deployed as a Local Authority Control Vehiclealongside the Police Control vehicles at the scene of an

incident, as a Communications vehicle at an EmergencyRest Centre, or to provide a Public Information Point near

an incident. Since Chelmsford Borough Council’s EP unit took

delivery of the vehicle a number of other Authorities haveshown keen interest in its design and are consideringfollowing Chelmsford’ s lead. In response to demand theEPU have put together a pack with details of the design andthe facilities included on the vehicle. For furtherinformation contact Kelvin Ward, Principal EmergencyPlanning Officer, Chelmsford Borough [email protected] 01245 606757

Chelmsfordleads the waytowards 100%RESILIENCE


Risk management is an integral part of business planning cycles butmany companies don’t yet have a business continuity or disaster recoveryplan in place.

Disaster is an emotive word but any event or situation which threatensserious damage to people, property, equipment and data has a huge impacton lives and businesses and it is imperative that companies and organisationsare best prepared to respond to any emergency.

Thought has to be given to what could go wrong and to plan in detail whatthe company-wide response needs to be, given the nature of your business. Itcould be fire, explosion, chemical release, and technology failure, extremeweather conditions, which are on the increase, widespread food poisoning,Avian/Pandemic Flu, or terrorist action.

If at all possible your incident management team will need to try tomaintain normal services at an appropriate level during the emergency,whilst safeguarding people’s lives.

So how do you go about this? Some universities offer degrees in disasterand emergency planning and there are private training providers, but yourlocal college may also be an option.

Peterborough Regional College in Cambridgeshire understands the

importance of this type of planning and organises seminars for companies in theGreater Peterborough area.

With over 15,000 students of all ages studying further and higher educationcourses, and around 1,000 members of staff, the College has had a disaster recoveryplan in place for many years and rehearses annually.

The College’s Business Training Services Team, who organise the seminars,include key themes such as the role of the emergency planning manager, mediaimplications for dealing with a disaster, the use of IT to enhance emergencyinformation delivery, and business continuity and crisis management planning. Thenext seminar will also include planning for pandemic flu.

A team of specialists is engaged in the delivery of the programme, whichincludes Stuart Hamilton, Peterborough City Council’s Emergency Planning &Business Continuity Manager, as one of the keynote speakers.

Stuart said “Disaster planning is just as important to small businesses as it is tolarge international companies, in fact it could be more important. Smallerbusinesses are unlikely to have the resources to recover from a disaster unless theyhave adequate plans in place. These are not elaborate plans but details of suppliers,insurers, staff phone numbers, landlord, bank accounts etc that are held together inone place and kept away from your normal place of business. Also think about a‘what if’ situation and consider what would you do. For instance your premises areinside a police cordon and will not be available for several days or weeks or yourpremises become damaged through fire, flood or other reasons. What would youdo? Can you contact your staff? Can you contact your suppliers/customers? Thiscould mean the difference between recovery and failure.

“Peterborough City Council is pleased to support seminars such as these beingorganised by Peterborough Regional College as we feel it is important for localbusiness, whatever their size, to be prepared in the event of a major incident toenable them to carry on their business successfully.”

The College also draws on internal teaching resources by using its medialecturers to give attendees a taste of what they could expect from local or nationaljournalists in a real situation, and how to deal with it in a positive way.

Paul Williams, Head of Asset Management at Axiom Housing Association Ltd.,said, “We are all inundated with seminars and training courses eating into our verylimited time. Anyone who is involved with disaster planning will benefit enormouslyfrom this seminar. I have found it extremely valuable in developing our own disasterplanning strategy, to the extent that we have entered into a collaborative agreementwith another local housing association, and with the assistance of Stuart Hamiltonhave produced a joint disaster planning strategy which works with the localauthority.”

There are three phases in an emergency; preparation, response and recovery;the objective being to restore normal operation as soon as possible in an effective,efficient and professional manner.

Preparation gives you the opportunity to assess hazards that could affect yourorganisation and to think through problems and solutions in advance. From thereyou can draw up and maintain a plan that minimises risk, provides clear proceduresand clarifies your team’s responsibilities.

First response mobilises key staff immediately to co-ordinate the disaster plan bytransmitting a codeword and usually involves the emergency services. Elements ofyour management team’s role will include site, personnel and visitor safety andsecurity, evacuation procedures, the dissemination of information, where effectivecommunication and teamwork is of the utmost importance, and dealing with mediainterest.

Recovery and the time this takes is dependent on how effective your planning is. It is essential to test your plan once it is devised and to hold regular rehearsals so

that your response and reaction times can be evaluated and fine tuned.Business Training Executive, Sharon Harding, said “At some point, it’s likely that

the plans you are making now for maintaining continuous business operations willbe put to the test.

“Whatever the reason for the disaster, whether man-made or natural, you willhave to prove to your customers, business partners and the financial markets thatyou had made suitable preparation.

“Long after an incident has ended, the way in which you responded to it will stickin the minds of your existing customers, your future customers, and, if yourcontinuity plans were not effective, the people who used to be your customers.”

Kev Brear from Lloyds TSB Financial Markets, part of CorporateMarkets, looks at the relationship between emergency planning andbusiness continuity and suggests that the two disciplines are so alignedthat the skill sets to perform each function may be interchangeable.

The membership of the Emergency Planning Society is a diverse groupof individuals drawn from all spheres of society and from a variety ofindustries and professions. As a consequence it may be safely assumedthat most readers have heard about Business Continuity and have noticedthe steady rise in its profile.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2005 placed a requirement on all categoryone responders to have business continuity plans in place for their ownorganisations and then placed a further requirement for local authoritiesto promote the value of business continuity to their communities. Laterthis year the British Standards Institute will publish BS 25999 – 1, whichwill form the basis of the first UK standard in business continuity. Like it ornot, business continuity is here to stay.

It has been suggested by a number of other writers that businesscontinuity and emergency planning require similar core skills and thattherefore a practitioner from either discipline could cope with thebusiness demands of the other.. In their book Business ContinuityManagement, a crisis management approach (1) Elliott, Schwarz andHerbane acknowledge the links between business continuity andemergency planning and they state that the…

…broadening of business continuity reflects the underlying assumptionthat crisis incidence or business interruptions are systemic in nature,comprising of both social and technical elements. Such a view has been

well developed within the field of crisis management (Turner, 1976;Turner and Pidgeon, 1997; Schrivastava, 1987; Smith, 1990; Pauchantand Douville, 1993; Perrow, 1997).

Those outside the emergency planning and business continuityprofessions have also recognised the link between business continuityand emergency planning. The Greater London Assembly Review of theresponse to the events of the 7th of July 2005, were:

To review and report with recommendations on lessons to belearned from the response to the 7th July bomb attacks:• How information, advice and support was communicated

to Londoners,• How business continuity arrangements worked in practise,• The role of Broadcasting Services in communication,• The use of Information and communication technology to

aid the response process

If the link is indeed accepted and the need for some, if not all,emergency planners to understand business continuity isacknowledged, then an article about business continuity appearing inBlueprint may soon become something less of an anathema andmore of an accepted norm. In return it could be desirable foremergency planning professionals to have more articles published inthe business continuity media.

Having established the link between the two disciplines, the nextissue arises, as how to utilise the learning from each subject and applyit to the aligned discipline.

An example of this employment of cross discipline knowledgecould be one that arose from the lessons identified from the 7th ofJuly, in relation to passing information to staff members. In theincident review report (3), compiled by the Tripartite Authorities(Financial Services Authority, HM Treasury and Bank of England) afterthe 7th of July, it was reported that some financial sector staffmembers stated that they could not access up to date information anddid not receive adequate information, providing clear and conciseinstructions. This situation was most apparent in the cases of staffmembers who were out of the office visiting clients or engaged onother bank business during that day. This issue was presented to theLloyds TSB Financial Markets Business Continuity team forconsideration and it was decided that the approach to this issue takenby the emergency services should be studied, to identify a possiblesolution from their practices. It was found that the City of LondonPolice employs an electronic system that provides real-timeinformation to its community through the use of pagers, SMS and e-mail messages and that the system was well documented as beingboth effective and resilient.

Having identified the potential solution, a study was made of thecommercial providers of such a service, and after much deliberation itwas decided that Lloyds TSB Financial Markets, would invest in theRapid Reach system (www. rapidreach.eu) as the system provided thebest fit with some applications already embedded in the ITinfrastructure at Lloyds TSB. The Rapid Reach system is nowembedded within Financial Markets and the system has now beensuccessfully tested. That testing revealed that a cascade alertmessage to all Financial Markets staff members could be delivered ina fraction of the time, compared with the previous system ofemploying a manual cascade. The Rapid Reach system also removedthe labour intensive burden of the previous manual methods.

Accounting for staff members had also been identified as an issue inthe Tripartite incident review into the 7th of July response. The LloydsTSB Financial Markets business continuity team identified that theRapid Reach system also had inbuilt functionality that could be used toresolve this issue and provide both real time statistics and records ofresponses from identifiable individuals, when required. Once again anissue arising from crisis management responses had been used as thefoundation for resolving a business continuity problem.

Having shown that knowledge can be used from emergencyplanning experiences and applied to business continuity problems

Why risk it – put disasterplanning on yourschedule now

then the links between the two areas become quite clear. Some organisationshave re-labelled emergency planning officers as emergency planning andbusiness continuity managers. This practise may not be a problem, providedthe individuals concerned receive the appropriate training and support so thatthe subtle differences between the two disciplines may be recognised andaddressed.

Business continuity is a relatively recent term, but the skill sets thatunderpin the discipline are the same as emergency planning. It is thereforeaxiomatic that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in theemergency planning world that business continuity managers may utilise. Itmay be suggested that the real challenge lies in breaking down the barriersbetween the two disciplines and opening up greater dialogue between theprofessional bodies that support the practitioners in these respective fields.Some work has started on this area, but progress has been slow and there islittle to show from the efforts. However, the Emergency Planning College atEasingwold has risen to this challenge and offers courses in both emergencyplanning and business continuity and this approach has also been adopted byCoventry University.

Unfortunately, these two examples are still the exception, rather than therule, and only experience over time will be the judge of whether or not thesituation improves.

(1) Elliott, D. Swartz, E. Herbane, B. (2004) Business ContinuityManagement, a crisis management approach, Abingdon: Routledge

(2) Barnes, R. Hamwee, S. McCartney, J. Hulme-Cross, P. Johnson, D(June 2006) Report of the 7 July Review Committee, London: Greater LondonAssembly

(3) Financial Services Authority, Bank of England, H.M. Treasury IncidentReview – July 7 2005, London: The Tripartite

Business Continuity:Re-inventing thewheel?

Contact: The Publicity Officer, 01733 762380, at Park Crescent, Peterborough PE1 4DZ

Kev Brear MBCI [email protected] 7418 3664

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