Every country in the world at some point or another experiences extremes of weather beyond the norm.

There must be contingency plans in place you might think, and you would be correct.

But, here's the sequence of events simply due to local storm conditions in the UK in 2006, in spite of the regional emergency response system being well-developed, trained and equipped.

• 2200 - First indications of flooding due to the storm
• 2230 - Emergency Response Control Room opens
• 2300 - Reception Areas opened (for evacuees if necessary)
  
  8 January 2006
• 0230 - Widespread major flooding confirmed
• 0930 - Priority Search and Rescue
• 1000 - Carlisle City completely cut-off from rest of UK by land access
• 1000 - Hurricane Force winds have caused major structural damage, blown trucks over on roads and blown down approx 500,000 trees
• 1015 - Decision to evacuate approx 2000 homes
• 1030 - Floods continue to rise affecting a huge area. Flooding levels set to peak around 1500.
• 1045 - Police stations and vehicles, fire services vehicles, telephone network depots and vehicles caught in floods and rendered unusable
• 1100 - Electricity Substations flooded, major electricity failures affect 70,000 homes
• 1100 - All electrical systems without emergency power supplies fail. Many emergency generators fail to start. Digital telephone system fails. PABX and ISDN phone systems fail
• 1200 - mobile/cell network overloaded due to demand and begins to fail.
• 1300 - First reports of fatalities
• 1400 - Police radio network fails
• 2345 - Main Emergency Response Control Centre generator fails
  
  9 January 2006
• 0900 - Widespread flooding continues. No electricity, no mobile/cell phones, Search and Rescue only partially completed
• 1300 - PSTN fails (last 2500 points for telephones). No telephone systems available at all now.
  
  11 January (Day 5)
• Floods receeding and normality begins to be restored
  
  How would you as an individual cope in these circumstances?
  How would your business cope?
   

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