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Author: mtthwhgn

Help me find a wild goose!

Help me find a wild goose!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

What started as a good idea has got me stumped, and I need your help! I’m on the hunt for the first edition of the London Emergency Services Liaison Panel Major Incident Procedures Manual. Snappy title huh?!

It was published in hard copy only in, or around 1986, and was the first attempt to describe the multi agency response to a civil emergency.

  • Are you an emergency planner with an extensive library?
  • Do you know any ex police/fire/ambulance staff? Are they a bit of a hoarder?
  • If so, share this post with them or encourage them to contact me!

Why am I after a document that’s as old as I am?

LESLP started life in different times. Whilst many of the risks that London faced in 1973 are the same in 2015, others have changed and more have been identified (hello: cyber hacking). However, it’s not just the risks that change, the capacity and capability to respond have also changed.

It’s hard to look at how things have changed when you weren’t there to experience it first hand. From the outside the police in 2015 is markedly different to the Life on Mars image I have in my mind. Similarly for the other emergency services, there has been massive change not just in terms of what can be done, but also in how things are done.

A couple of years ago, as a response to Lady Justice Hallett’s inquest report, the Home Office initiated the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme. The aim was to develop national consistency regarding major and complex incident response. However, in London LESLP has been in place for over 40 years, and there was a sense from some corners of ‘we already do that’. True, the LESLP procedures do call for joint working and articulate organisational roles and responsibilities. However, I thought, wouldn’t it be an interesting exercise to compare Version 1 with Version 9 to see how things have changed? How have lessons from incidents have been incorporated into policy? What about international best practise and changes in national response capability, have they been included? And most importantly of all, wouldn’t this sort of historical analysis make for a fine blog piece!

However, tracking down the first edition is proving to be more problematic than I initially thought! The Met Police are the document owners, but the my colleagues there don’t have a copy. I’ve contacted the Cabinet Office and Emergency Planning College (who were able to send me a copy of Version 2, but didn’t have version 1). I’ve also contacted the Met Police Heritage Centre, the London Fire Brigade Museum and the Emergency Planning Society. I haven’t heard back from those organisations yet but I’m beginning to think that Version 1 might be a wild goose.

I hope that you’re able to help me in my search. I’m a big believer in the six degrees of separation. I know I’m only a connection away from finding someone who has what I’m after!

Thanks,

Matthew

What’s in a name: toponymy and risk

What’s in a name: toponymy and risk

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Two years ago I sat on the underground with my friend Martin and studied the tube map for places with the suffix –ham, which means farm (I’ve found activities like this make the journey go quicker!). It was clear from those place names that London’s metropolis actually grew from a large number of farms, and that a lot can be understood about history just from what we call places. I didn’t then realise that I’d come back to blog about this in relation to risk!

Recently I attended a presentation from Somerset County Council on their experience of flooding in Winter 2013/14. The presenter made one comment which really resonated with me

“Muchelney…by the way, any place names which end in ‘ney’ means island…”

It was just a passing comment, but one which I’ve been reflecting on for a little while. Place names reflect local history, so can toponymy tell us anything about risk?

If a place has a history of repeated emergencies (lets say flooding), does that become part of its present and future through being incorporated into its name? To explore this a little I thought I’d investigate the meaning of place names on the Wikipedia UK flood list.

Modern Place Name Meaning Place name is a possible Indicator of flood risk?
London We’re often told that London has its roots in the latin Londinium however, Richard Coates suggests it could derive from the earlier Old Europeanplowonidā meaning ‘river too wide or deep to ford’. Flooding from a wide and deep river could have significant consequences. Yes
Sheffield Open Land by the River Sheaf Yes
Lynmouth Mouth of the River Lyn (meaning ‘torrent’) Yes
Canvey Island Not a lot of consensus, but either means Island of Cana’s People or Island Island. Possibly
Glasgow Green hollow Possibly
Boscastle Botreaux Castle No
Cockermouth Mouth of the River Cocker (meaning ‘crooked one’) Yes
Cumbria Compatriot Land / Countrymen No
Somerset Levels Somerset – Settlers by sea lakesLevels – refers to level marine clays Yes
Wraysbury Wïgrǣd’s fort No

A quick Google later and I found this map via Being The Hunt, which provides the meaning of country names in Europe. At this level it doesn’t say much about risk (with the exception of Land of Revolt), but I wonder whether the same could be done for place names in the UK/London, and what hidden patterns this might reveal?

toponymy

And it’s not just place names. Our own names may give some indication about historical events and could potentially be used to infer future risk…

The map below shows the prevalence of the surname Flood in England in 1891. What strikes me is that the surname is more common in coastal areas or those which anecdotally are prone to flooding. It’s impossible to infer much from this, but would be interesting to do a longitudinal study to see how these surname clusters have moved over time, and it’s an interesting pattern nevertheless!

names

I’m not sure, other than being interesting, what a detailed exploration of this would reveal. However, I’ve recently been doing some work on risk perception, and wonder whether people who live in places which have flood-related names have a higher degree of risk awareness?

Your thoughts and comments would be welcomed. This is very much just a collection of half-formed ideas rolling around in my head, and if anyone could help me make sense of them that’d be great!

Londonist have just released another alternative Tube map – I wonder if their next one could be ‘meanings’ of current places?

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 20

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 20

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I expect everyone remembers the episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S where it was revealed to everyone that the smell of gas is synthetically added…

That’s a helpful safety feature which makes it possible to detect a gas leak early, and report it to your gas provider.

Reporting utility incidents is the focus of Day 20’s challenge

1 Pt: Identify all of your homes emergency shut offs…  Should you shut these off or do you need to call a professional?

2 Pts: Who are you gonna call?  We want you to program into your phones emergency contact numbers for power, gas, and water.  

As well as saving the numbers below to my phone, I’ve also included the out of hours number for my landlord, so that I can pass on any relevant information in the event of an emergency. I’ve also followed the relevant social media accounts as the companies often provide really useful information about service restoration on twitter.

UK Power Networks – 0800 028 0247 or @UKPowerNetworks

SGN Gas – 0800 111 999 or @SGNGas

Thames Water – 0800 714 614 or Report A Leak or @ThamesWater

I have also located my utility shut off points, however I’m not sure I’d have the confidence in knowing how to switch off gas, so that’s something that I’ll need to follow up!

I’m also aware that there are conversations within the electricity industry in the UK at the moment about having a single reporting line for power-cuts rather than each operator having different details. Whilst I think a common number makes it easier to find the right number (as for the National Gas Leak Number) whether they will ever be as ingrained as 999 I’m not yet convinced.

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 19

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 19

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I’ve been wondering recently how much Resilience is connected to stamina. The ability to ‘keep going’ surely has a crossover to being prepared for any eventuality? It;s therefore telling that I’ve struggled, for various reasons, to maintain stamina to complete the 30Days challenges! Sometimes life just gets in the way!

However, I’m determined to see the challenge through to completion, and will be attempting to meet the deadline! With that in mind…here’s day 19’s task – to create a preparedness message

1 Pt: Today we ask you to create your own preparedness message. Share on your Facebook page or Tweet it out.

2 Pts: Add a photo or make a video of your message and share it with us.

BONUS  3 Pts: Create your preparedness message  with a “Pirate Theme.”  Today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day!!  

Ok, lets see, a preparedness message. I have two options, one which I have suggested at work, and one which I’ve shamelessly stolen from elsewhere!

Option 1 – Go In, Stay In, Tune In, Join In

In July 2004 the UK Government initiated the Preparing for Emergencies, which saw the distribution of a booklet to every household, with advice on preparedness. The key strap-line of the campaign was Go In, Stay in, Tune In – advice that in the event of an emergency it was usually best to get inside, to stay inside, and to switch on your TV or radio for more information. Not bad advice, but to me it was missing one key element, looking after each other. So I’d like to suggest adapting the national message to include Join In as the final call to action.

Share the information that you have, encourage friends and family members to be as prepared as you are, and don’t forget to check on them should an emergency occur.

I’d also propose a slightly adapted logo…

GISITIa

Option 2 – Keep Calm and Carry On 

One of the challenges in developing preparedness messages is understanding your audience. The messages that resonate in America aren’t necessarily those which would be well received in the UK. In addition, they need to be developed informed by local risk.

I can’t take credit for this message, which was developed but never used during wartime in Britain. Whilst it doesn’t actually provide much advice this message perfectly captures British stoicism and resilience to adversity, and I think it’s very applicable to preparing for emergencies.

Keep-calm-and-carry-on-scan

And for the bonus points, here’s my Pirate translations:

Go In, Stay, In, Tune In, Join In = Avast, batten down the hatches, listen for ye shipmates report from the crows nest and look after ye hearties. (not quite as snappy!)

Keep Calm and Carry On = Blow me down and hoist the mizzen

 

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 18

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 18

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I saw the title of today’s task, What’s Your Special Need and immediately had the answer, my glasses. Then I clicked the link to find out what i needed to do to win the points on offer.

glasses

To me, my glasses are one of my special needs.  Too many times when we talk about folks with special needs, we think of individuals with mobility issues or perhaps relying on oxygen on a daily basis, however we all have some sort of special needs…

1 Pt: List any items that may be a special need for you.

2 Pts:   Now lets think about your neighbourhood… Are their individuals on your block that have a special need you could assist with during an emergency or disaster.  How could you help?

Nooooooo!! The example mentioned my special need! My thunder had been stolen! Not having my glasses would make me more vulnerable; something I’m currently battling this having accidentally broken my glasses several weeks ago. Whilst I have contacts as a contingency, but I don’t always get on with them. So it’s made me realise that my vision prescription should also be one of the key documents included in my kit.

Some family and friends take regular prescription medication, which they would need to consider in their own emergency preparedness, However, perhaps one aspect that hasn’t been thought of are those people with specific dietary needs – gluten intolerance, allergies, or as dictated by certain religions. I wonder in an emergency whether it would be possible, or whether it’s even a consideration, not just providing food, but providing sufficient and diverse choice?

Looking to my neighbours – the only thing that I could think of in the context of this event would be that one of the families has a nanny. If she was unavailable it could prevent parents going to work. Family emergency plans should therefore consider contingency child care options.

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 17

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 17

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Recovery is often overlooked. Not just by members of the public but, in my experience, also by resilience practitioners themselves.

Thinking about what documents could be needed following an emergency in advance can make it far easier in the event of needing them; and that is the focus of today’s 30Days challenge.

House_Documents

1 Pt: Do you have a copy of important documents stored?  What types of important documents do you keep?

2 Pts:   Share some examples of how you can safely store important records and how often you update them.

The following are often suggested as important documents to keep copies of

  • Passport and driving license – important for identifying who you are! If your house has been destroyed how can you prove to authorities that it was your home?
  • financial Documents – proof of past income can be helpful in arranging access to loans if necessary, and proof of purchase of items or an inventory can assist with making insurance claims
  • Insurance documents – who know’s their policy number, or has actually read the small print? Having a copy can be useful to double check details
  • Other Personal Documents – this could include things like wills, family birth and death certificates, disability of medical records, educational records or certificates Payslips and Bank Account documents

In addition to these, I also have copies of my emergency contacts and documents with a particular sentimental value – such as photographs.

Where I can, I keep paper and digital copies. Automated backups to the Cloud are great for the times when your phone breaks or you delete a photo by mistake. However, I also have an external hard drive connected to my broadband router to provide another level of fallback. Currently my physical copies are not particularly well stored (i.e. not fire proof or water proof) but that’s something I’m slowly working on; and should I need it, the British Damage Management Association provides a useful source of advice on restoration of damaged documents. Keeping physical copies up to date is more challenging, but is something that I do from time to time, usually when it’s raining at a weekend and I don’t fancy venturing outside!

Speaking of rain, I’ve also been growing my own Rainy Day Fund over the last couple of years. Whilst not a document per-se it’s definitely something that I think could be very useful following an emergency, and could make recovery a smoother and less stressful process.

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 16

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 16

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Or…How Your Smartphone Could Stop You Having To Trade-In Your Rolex

The task for Day 16 is entitled Ccch Ccch Ccch Charge It (I pondered for a while but couldn’t work out if there was a significance to the David Bowie reference?). Players are invited to consider the resilience of their access to power with points available as follows:

1 Pt: What type of portable power do you keep around to keep your devices charged?

3 Pts:  What’s in your kit to safely power portable lighting, heat sources and food preparation. How many days would your power supply last?

HA

One of my favourite movies is Home Alone. Aside from being a brilliant Christmas/Get Will film, it’s full of examples about what the wider consequences of a power outage could be!

It perfectly illustrates, albeit metaphorically, that the impact goes far beyond the resetting the McCalisters alarm clock! Abandoning children at home, starting fights with French women on the phone, offering an old lady your dangly earings and having to endure polka music. Power cuts can be traumatic!

However, my smartphone guards me against all of that in the event of a short term power cut; its battery means my chances of oversleeping are reduced. (Although, the possibility of Apple introducing a bug which has the same consequence isn’t mitigated!)

Whilst that’s ok for the occasional power surge, how would I cope if the electricity was off for longer? It’s used not just to charge my phone, but also for heating, cooking, refrigeration, water pumping, security, and entertainment. So the consequences could be far-reaching.

I don’t have a generator, and I don’t think one is necessary. However, I do have a small supply of food that can be eaten without cooking, I know that if I keep my refrigerator door closed then the food in there should be fine for a little while, and I have a selection of books to meet my entertainment needs.This post though, has made me revisit the idea of investing in another way of charging my phone in the absence of mains power – that’s something for the Christmas list perhaps!

So, how long could I ‘survive’ without power? I don’t think it’s possible to be precise as it is dependant on factors like the extent, duration and time of year. The personal impact could range from being a mild inconvenience to an emergency, so I think the key to enduring a power cut is to have flexibility and options rather than a rigid plan, and an expensive generator that will inevitably fail when you most need it.

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 15

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 15

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Two years ago I undertook to live on £1 per day for a week as part of Live Below The Line. It was a week that saw culinary creations such as egg fried rice with sausages and vegetable toad in the hole and where I discovered that mushy peas can be served with literally any meal!

It tested my inventiveness, but not quite as much as today’s 30 Days task. Joining forces with the Emergency Kit Cook Off campaign (which is brilliant!) players are challenged to rustle up something from the following ingredients:

  • Protein:  Chickpeas 
  • Fruit or Vegetable: Canned Pumpkin
  • Starch, grain or nut:  Instant Ramen Noodles
  • Beverage:  Almond Milk 
  • Comfort food:  Dark Chocolate

Live Below The Line was difficult, but as I could choose my ingredients for the week it was easier than having that choice taken away from me! I managed to use all of the listed ingredients, but I’m not sure my recipes will be featuring in any restaurants any time soon!

Chickpea and Pumpkin Patties with Chicken Noodles

food

I made it up as I was going, but I’d estimate that my recipe was as follows

  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 1 can unsweetened pumpkin (it turns out this is quite difficult to find in the UK)
  • 50g golden breadcrumbs
  • 2 tsp garlic puree
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp coriander

I mashed all the ingredients together (in hindsight I mashed it a little too much and would recommend some of the chickpea texture is preserved) and formed into patties. I coated in seasoned flour and fried in a little oil for several minutes. I served this with chicken instant noodles made to the packet instructions, but I also threw in some chopped spring onions (or scallions!) as I had some lying around.

Black Forest Smoothie

To follow my dinner, I used the almond milk and dark chocolate (and some poetic license) to create a smoothie. Given the choice I’d probably have them separately but that didn’t seem to be in the spirit of the challenge, but making the smoothie would be tricky if restricted to manual equipment only!

  • drink100ml almond milk
  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 1/2 punnet of frozen cherries
  • 1 banana

It was difficult to get the chocolate chopped fine enough, which resulted in a somewhat lumpy smoothie, but it didn’t taste too bad!

So, there we have it, my creations for today’s task. I don’t think I;d rush to make either again, but I know that if that was all I had in the cupboard I wouldn’t starve!

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 14

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 14

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I blogged almost two years ago about how the rise of the smartphone has reduced our resilience in that most of us no longer commit phone numbers to memory. Yes, everything is backed up to the Cloud (which rings some brilliant advantages), but that’s not very helpful when your phone runs out of charge, or you’re away from internet access.

phone book

I have two phones (personal and work) and make sure that my key contacts are available on both devices, and I also stubbornly refuse to leave the ‘good old days’ of a paper phonebook, and although I expect most of the numbers in there are very out of date, it’s a starter for ten.

I can confirm for today’s 30 Days task that I have two out of area contact (my parents who live outside of London), and that I do know these numbers off by heart. To go one step beyond the challenge, I’ve also made sure that my local contacts have access to my out of area contacts so they can speak just in case I’m directly affected by an emergency.

 

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 12

30 Days, 30 Ways: Day 12

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Anybody that knows me will tell you that I can get pretty severe ‘cabin fever’, so I naturally do quite a lot of exploring of my local area. The task for today’s 30 Days challenge is to go for a short walk and identify local hazards and resources that could be useful in an emergency, with points allocated as follows:

1 Pt:  Identify what is within a 20 minute walk of your home, without being too specific…  Fire Stations, Churches, Grocery stores, resources that my be useful in an emergency.. etc. or take a virtual walk if you can’t physically.

2 Pts:   What Hazards are within that same 20 minute walk?  Bridges, Highways, Rail, Hazardous Materials? Don’t forget hidden hazards.. Pipelines, Earthquake Faults.

I decided I’d go for a quick stroll around where I work and put new app Hyperlapse to the test to give you a virtual tour of the local hazards (annotated in red) and resources (in green). I’ve probably missed lots, and would welcome anyone else’s suggestions, either from the video clip, or their own local knowledge of the area.

I think there is a lot of potential with Hyperlapse, however I noticed a couple of things

  • I should have shot the video in landscape rather than portrait
  • I need to work out how to refocus on the move
  • You need to have a lot of storage space. I’d intended it to be a 20 minute walk condensed into 2 minutes, however my phone ran out of space at 18 minutes!

I know my camera work isn’t exactly oscar worthy, but I’m quite impressed with how easy this was, and wonder if it could be a really useful tool for helping communicate risk.