Exercise Unified Response
Next monday marks two weeks until Exercise Unified Response.
From 29 Feb to 3 March members of the London Resilience Partnership will paticipate in one of the biggest and most realistic exercises ever conducted. Exercise activity will take place across multiple venues as emergency services, local authorities, transport providers and others consider the multi-agency response to a building collapse scenario.
Emergencies in London are relatively rare so but exercises provide a simulated emergency scenario and allow responders to practise skills in safe conditions. They are important ways of learning about how to improve emergency preparedness.
Exercises are held regularly to allow all members of the responder organisations to practise their skills. You may remember seeing information about some previous exercises in the media. Past scenarios have included
- fire at the Tower of London (Exercise Tower Guardian, Jan 2016)
- counter terrorism (Exercise Strong Tower, June 2015) and
- a plane crash (Exercise Teal, April 2014).
The scenarios for exercises all draw information from the London Risk Register, which sets out an assessment of the relative impact and likelihood of different types of emergency.
Follow #UnifiedResponse on Twitter for more information!
Innovation in Resilience
How can the capabilities and capacities of the collaborative economy proactively support resilience and emergency response?
That was one of the questions which generated lots of discussion at a SMART London workshop held this week. We're always interested in how we can better help people, communities and businesses to prepared for the risk of an emergency.
When an emergency occurs we typically come together to help each other out. There are many examples of that sort of collaboration in non-emergency situations too, so it's useful to think about how the capacity people to collaborate could be used to best effect.
If you've got any thoughts, or a suggestion based on the question above, get in touch with us @LDN_prepared and let us know!
Weather
Met Office
Continuing very unsettled for London over the coming days with some strong winds and periods of rain at times. Saturday in particular is likely to see some heavy rain and increasingly strong winds. After a quieter but breezy day on Sunday with a few showers, winds will increase again going into Monday.
Next week is expected to remain unsettled with further windy and wet weather.
There are currently no severe weather alerts or warnings in force for London although this will be kept under review given the unsettled conditions expected over the next few days. In particular the strength of the wind late Sunday into Monday may warrant the issue of a warning. View all weather Alerts and Warnings on the Met Office website.
Environment Agency
On Wednesday the Thames Barrier closed for the 176th time to protect London from the possibility of tidal flooding. The recent period of high spring tides is now over, although a few flood alerts are in place for London.
The Live EA Flood Warnings Map has up to date information on river and tidal flooding.
Air Pollution
Air pollution levels are forecast to be Low.
Health
Zike remains an International Public Health Emergency. Find out more about the virus from Public Health England or advice for travellers from Travel Health Pro.
Terrorist Threat Levels
The threat levels are unchanged
- International terrorism – Severe (an attack is highly likely).
- Northern Ireland related terrorism to Great Britain – Moderate (an attack is possible but not likely).
Transport
London's Chinese New Year celebrations this weekend are some of the biggest outside fo Asia, with a parade and events in Trafalgar Square. Some road closures will be in place.
There is a planned Circle Line closure, as well as part closures to the District, Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan and Overground lines. Use the TfL Journey Planner for real-time information on travel conditions.
That's it for this week, have a safe weekend and 新年快乐 (Happy New Year!).
Matt, London Resilience Officer