CUMBRIA RAYNET GROUP

2009 - The West Cumbria Floods

On Thursday 19th November 2009 the rains came and many of the areas on the western side of Cumbria began to flood. The most dramatic and severe flooding was in the Cockermouth and Workington areas. Members were alerted that evening and asked to be in a high state of readiness in case we received a call from the EPU.

At 09:15 on Friday 20th November we were put on Standby. From the experiences from Carlisle floods the mobile phone network suddenly collapsed and it took a while to get things set up to cover 999 calls. Standby lasted until 19:30 when we were stood down for the night as there had been no telecommunications issues which they had not been able to get around by other means.

About 10:00 on Saturday we were advised that we were not needed at that time but we should remain in a high state of readiness in case Calve Bridge collapsed.

On Tuesday morning at 10:30 we were put on standby. Our Controller attended the emergency Telecommunications Sub Group (TSG) meeting that afternoon where the contingency plans for the collapse of Calva bridge were discussed.  At that meeting it was decided to deploy Raynet in the event of the collapse of the mobile phone network. Raynet were asked to make their communications trailer ready for deployment and our controller and treasurer attended a briefing meeting at 16:00 at Carlisle castle. We were told that if Calva Bridge collapsed we would be asked to provide 999 cover at Northside Community Centre, Firth House Residential Home in Seaton and Camerton village hall. We would provide an operator (control) at Maryport police station and we would to use the PMR repeater at Moota.

Wednesday saw Peter and Darren checking out these links with Raynet members from Richmond (North Yorks) and Bradford (who came across for the day).

We were called out on Thursday evening at 22:00 by the EPU duty officer. The landline telephones in Northside had failed and they required us to back the mobile phone network up. It was agreed that the EPU staff would cover the night and NPRG would take over from c. 08:00 for the rest of the day on Friday. Fred from Lancashire arrived about 09:15 to help and this was followed by two Steves from the Wirral. The two Steves stayed until Darron and Steven took over and they were relieved by Rob, Alistair and Katie for the night shift until 06:00 Saturday morning. Two Dumfries and Galloway members then replaced the night shift and stayed until 11:00 when Fred took over and stayed until 16:30 when we were stood down from Northside. We remained on standby for Calva Bridge until Monday morning at 11:55 when we were stood down.

Thanks go to all those who turned out and did a shift.