Exercise Storm Deborah (1stMay)

Exercise Storm Deborah

Exercise Storm Deborah (1stMay) Floods / Storm Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service are hosting a joint operational response exercise tomorrow Tuesday (1 May 2018) where they will be simulating days of flooding to Bedfordshire followed by a devastating storm. This will test inter-agency co-operation in the face of a major natural disaster.

Codenamed Storm Deborah the exercise is taking place at Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue’s HQ in Southfields Road, Kempston on Tuesday 1 May, 2018 between 8.45 and 16.30.

Storm Deborah is a large scale multi agency exercise based upon flooding affecting Bedfordshire in an area similar to the 1998 Easter floods. Following four days of heavy rain and flooding on the day of the exercise a violent storm, named Deborah, is predicted to run through the East of England causing further widespread disruption and damage not just in Bedfordshire but affecting neighbouring counties. 

Police, Fire, Ambulance services, Local Authorities, the Environment Agency and the Military, amongst others, will be gathering in Kempston to play out how they would deal with such a major emergency. 

This is not just a paper exercise but specialist equipment from around Bedfordshire and neighbouring counties will be deployed at Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue HQ to set up a Tactical Command Group, an Incident Room, and a Forward Command Point including the BFRS Incident Command Unit. Also on the site will be the enhanced Logistical Support Unit (a national asset from Hertfordshire) forming part of the Multi-Agency Strategic support.

There will also be a media cell set up to test co-working between emergency services and other communications teams. They will be running press releases and dummy social media feeds during the exercise to test the creation of public safety messaging and reactions of false or incorrect information.

It should be an interesting day for all taking part, testing our processes and procedures, as well as inter-agency working. 

You are invited to attend the exercise and see how our emergency teams would react if a major flooding incident and storm affected Bedfordshire and the surrounding region.

Contact mark.hustwitt@beds or laura.deane@bedsfire.com for more information.