ITEM CA8
CABINET – 20 NOVEMBER 2007
FLOODING IN OXFORDSHIRE 2007
Report by the Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer
Introduction
1. On Friday 20 July 2007, severe weather warnings were given for the Thames Valley Region. During the course of the following twenty four hours, torrential rain and flash flooding occurred in many areas with, in some cases, evacuation of residents being required. Oxfordshire County Council Fire & Rescue Service received over 1200 calls with particular operational activity in Abingdon, Banbury, Bampton and West Oxfordshire generally. On Saturday 21 July, the river Windrush burst its banks in Witney. The City of Oxford subsequently experienced flooding in the Botley Road and Abingdon Road areas, requiring numerous people to be evacuated from residential areas. In total, the Fire & Rescue Service received some 2000 calls for assistance throughout the period of the flooding. Around 3000 homes were affected and approximately 230 rescues using boats were carried out. The crisis element of the operation was signed off ten days later on 30 July 2007, establishing the incident as the largest in Oxfordshire County Council’s history.
2. Within the last decade, Europe has suffered a range of extreme weather events. The insurance company, Swiss Re, has gathered together data on the average number of storms and floods by decades. In the 1970s, there was an average of 27 major events; in the 1980s, the average was 50; and for the 1990s, it was 93. Judging by this trend, it would seem clear that the frequency of major flooding is likely to increase over the coming years.
3. Climate change has long been viewed as a source of risk and may become irreversible over the next 10-20 years. There is growing consensus that the phenomenon is real, even if there are wide differences of opinion over its effects. As research improves and the global community reaches a better understanding of the relationship, or lack of it, between extreme weather events and climate change, the issue will move up the risk mitigation agenda. (World Economic Forum, Global Risks 2006).
4. Oxfordshire County Council has developed a strategy to reduce its carbon footprint and mitigate its own organisational impact on climate change. However, the increase in major events is unlikely to decline in the short to medium term and all of the available learning points that arose following the major flooding events of 2007 must be identified and resolved collectively by the agencies responsible.
Key Impact on Communities
5. The impact of flooding on communities should not be underestimated. Those involved suffered very considerable damage to their homes and their personal possessions. The family home should be a place of safety and sanctuary, a place to be with family members, and the loss of such a facility can be devastating to those involved and particularly to the more vulnerable. Local business in the affected areas suffered considerable commercial disruption and loss of revenue. The damage to the transport infrastructure and the loss of use of arterial transport routes had a direct and negative impact on both the public and private sectors’ ability to return to normal operations. Linked to that is the financial impact of such events and the subsequent detrimental effect on insurance premiums, business and property values.
Lessons Learned
6. At the time of compiling this report, most agencies had conducted either collective or internal debriefs. The outcome of those debriefs were not all available. However, some strategic themes have been identified that could be collectively developed by all of the responsible agencies. Thirty agencies were involved during the event including Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford City Council, District Councils, Ambulance Service, Thames Valley Police, Health, Public Utilities, Ministry of Defence, Voluntary Sector, Faith-based organisations, the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) and neighbouring authorities and organisations.
7. Each of the thirty agencies involved in Oxfordshire came away with a range of issues to examine. They can be broadly categorised as:
· Resilience in terms of sustaining a long duration incident with competent personnel and executive level decision makers; · Business continuity and the resumption of normality for the communities, and both private and public sectors; · Protecting the environment from water borne contaminants; · Securing water, electricity and other key utilities; · The effectiveness of pre-planned arrangements such as rest centres; · Receipt and action of high volumes of calls for assistance; · Communications with communities throughout the incident; · Communications between agencies, issues surrounding terminology and technology; · Training/competence of frontline staff in a rapidly changing environment; · Personal protective equipment; adequacy and availability; · Use of boats for rescues and the transportation of personnel and equipment; and, · The welfare arrangements of all of those involved.
8. The following common themes have been identified and a potential collective approach to resolution developed into learning outcomes.
· Command and Control o terminology o responsibilities o resources · Communication · Pre-Planning
Strategic Analysis
9. The analysis of the key learning points has been deliberately kept at a higher level. It is imperative for all of the agencies involved to identify learning points and for a collective response where appropriate to resolving the matters identified. This type of analysis is being undertaken at national, regional and at local levels.
Subject of Strategic Analysis
Command and Control
10. It was clear from the debriefs of the agencies which responded that terminology was an issue. Several instances were cited which demonstrated a lack of clarity between organisational terminologies, potentially leading to significant misunderstanding at operational level.
11. With the exception of the ‘blue light’ first responders and the Emergency Planning Officers, there was a lack of understanding about the Gold/Silver/Bronze Command system and the relevant responsibilities.
12. A significant issue was resourcing the Gold and Silver Command facilities with officers who had the right level of training and decision-making experience. Most organisations, including Oxfordshire County Council, maintained officers’ position at Silver beyond what could be considered reasonable and left organisations potentially exposed due to the key decision makers becoming increasingly more fatigued.
Communication
13. A declaration of major incident could have been made earlier which would have provided an early indicator to all agencies. The early establishment of the Recovery Working Group was seen as a very important asset and the team performed extremely effectively.
14. All key infrastructure points need to be identified and incorporated into the planning strategy. This is essential to pre-plan defences for critical water and electricity supplies; and other key installations or hazards. This will require all agencies to communicate their individual intelligence into a central point in order for structured pre-planning to be put in place.
15. The Environment Agency needs to engage with other partners and establish a common communication strategy, which would ensure that their warnings and professional advice is delivered in a way that is understood by the communities and fellow agencies.
16. A Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) commissioned flooding review identified in its’ emerging issues report of October 2007 that further work may be required around combining Meteorological Office forecasts with the Environment Agency’s knowledge of the likely effect of the weather on river and tributary levels and the risk of flash flooding.
17. The CLG review also identified that the lessons learnt from the ability and capacity of the 999 system in coping with the high levels of calls generated by the wide area flooding, need to be fed into the Regional Fire Control Room project.
18. The Chief Fire Officers Association is seeking central government reassurance that the new Regional Control Centres will have the operational capacity to deal with the volumes of calls experienced.
19. In Oxfordshire, an additional call handling facility was established at the Fire & Rescue Headquarters. This was staffed by support staff volunteers and uniformed officers as the service handled 10% of its annual 999 calls in a twenty four hour period.
Pre-Planning
20. The key to any successful operation is pre-planning with all agencies engaged in joint exercises to hone the plans for major incidents. It is imperative that this training involves those players who will be participating in actual incidents, rather than the planners representing their own agencies. This will require higher level leadership to demonstrate the distinct importance of emergency planning and business continuity.
21. The CLG review identified that further work may be required in engaging some Category 2 responders both at the planning stage through Local Resilience Forums and in the response stage.
22. Category 2 responders are those who have a role in supporting Category 1 responders in their duties under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and include:
Utilities · Electricity · Gas · Water and sewage · Public communications providers (landlines and mobiles)
Transport · Network Rail · Train operating companies (passenger and freight) · Airports · Highways Agency
Government · Health & Safety Executive
Health Sector · Strategic Health Authority
Conclusion
23. The collective agency response to the 2007 floodings in Oxfordshire was predominantly well received by the communities involved. As always, there are learning points from a major incident of this nature. An improved response could be achieved by further co-ordination in the pre-planning phase, leading to better preparation and actual performance.
24. In comparison to other areas, services such as electricity and water suppliers were better protected due to the focused and determined efforts of the emergency services. This significantly reduced the longer term impact on communities.
25. The issues identified by this report should now be further investigated in the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum to ensure realistic and targeted action plans are developed and implemented in the short term to ensure the communities of Oxfordshire receive a demonstrable improvement in business continuity following major events in the county.
Financial and Staff Implications
26. Not quantified.
RECOMMENDATION
27. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
(a) note the report and acknowledge the contribution of all the agencies involved; and
(b) task the Head of Fire & Rescue Service Delivery and Emergency Planning to table the development and action plan for collective emergency response improvement through the Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum.
JOHN PARRY Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer
Background papers: CLG Flooding Review – Emerging Issues October 2007
Contact Officer: Mike Smyth, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Tel: (01865) 855205
November 2007
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