Exercise Triton
Details of the Exercise
June & July 2004
The Exercise Triton scenario covered an extreme flooding event (up to one in 1000 year occurrence) with extensive flooding affecting nearly half of England and Wales.
Objectives of the exercise:
- The exercise tested the nation's ability to work together and deal with extensive flooding.
- The scenario deliberately tested systems that would not normally be planned for.
Over 60 organisations and agencies took part nationally, regionally and locally. Teams of people based at 35 locations were presented with the emergency scenario and asked to respond as they would if the events were real. Each team had to make decisions that included how to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people; inform and warn the public via the media; what resources they needed and what the priorities were; if they needed military aid; how to communicate up and down the chain of command and whether they needed emergency powers. The exercise identified valuable lessons for the Environment Agency and partners in improving:
- How we can improve our forecasting
- The plans and procedures that we use
- The resources at our disposal
- And in understanding how the Civil Contingencies Act will change the way we work.
Report
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