Working together against flooding

Exercise Watermark was a national exercise that took place in Hull and East Yorkshire, and across the country, from 4-11 March.
Thousands of people from government departments, agencies, emergency responders, businesses and communities took part in what was one of the biggest emergency exercises ever to take place in the UK.
The exercise put the decision making, partnership working and communications ability of everyone involved in flood response under the spotlight.
In the Humber area, two scenarios were staged. The first was surface water flooding, based on the weather conditions from June 2007, and the second was east coast tidal inundation.
The Humber Local Resilience Forum (LRF) led the response and organisations such as the police, fire and rescue service, ambulance service, Hull City Council, the Environment Agency, the NHS, and utility companies were involved.
Exercise Watermark was designed to test the multi agency response, so in some cases, extreme scenarios had to be devised. This included the tidal inundation scenario in which most of Hull and surrounding areas as far as Bridlington were flooded.
The exercise was an opportunity for everyone to learn and prepare for when major floods do happen, and it also generated media coverage which promoted flood awareness and preparedness with the public.

For information visit www.exercisewatermark.co.uk and www.environmentagency.gov.uk