Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Setting the scene: Cumbria Floods – November 2009 Dan Bloomer Cumbria County Council & Cumbria Intelligence Observatory

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Overview Meteorological circumstances Flood extent Inundation of properties Impacts: –Community Welfare –Environment –Economy & Business –Infrastructure Recovery to date

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Meteorological circumstances Warm air mass tracked north from the tropics Heavy rain began falling on Wed 18 th November onto saturated ground UK record daily rainfall = 314 mm Max rainfall Wed 18 th – Fri 20 th = 372mm Flooding occurred across the county

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Reported incidents

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Extent of flooding

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Extent of flooding (South Lakeland)

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Extent of flooding (Allerdale)

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Inundation of properties

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Impacts – Community Welfare GP & Police bases flooded in Cockermouth Most pressing immediate and ongoing need is for accommodation Insurance & business advice required Affected residents tend to be older than average Psychological problems beginning to arise

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Impacts – Environment Large scale river planform change Erosion & deposition affecting agricultural land Huge increase in the amount of household waste Insurance concerns related to loss and removal of fallen stock

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Impacts – Economy & Business Most damage suffered in Allerdale and South Lakeland 80% of businesses in Cockermouth flooded Port of Workington out of action Trade lost due to infrastructure damage 72% of tourism business affected, 41% suffered cancellations

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Impacts – Infrastructure Roads closed across the county Numerous bridges lost A596 & A597 in Workington both severed Journey times and traffic congestion greatly increased Access to schools, health services etc limited Extensive infrastructure issues remain

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Recovery Process Multi-agency recovery group co-ordinated by the County Council Welfare, Environment, Business & Economy and Infrastructure sub-groups Regular Ministerial meetings and conference calls Registration system now tracking affected people

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Recovery examples Flood support centres in Ulverston Keswick, Cockermouth and Workington Temporary footbridge erected Extra bus and train services Port of Workington re-opened Temporary business accommodation arranged “Open for business” PR campaign

Building pride in Cumbria Do not use fonts other than Arial for your presentations Points to address Inconsistencies between local and national response Complexities of adapting to Whitehall cultures Strategic vs frontline information flow Balancing expectations with achievability Fragility of infrastructure Psychological impact only beginning to become apparent