Salford Boxing Day Floods – 2015
At the January capability building quarterly we will be focussing a session on the National Risk Register. To stimulate discussion in that space, we will hear from Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Salford CVS on how their region takes the National Risk Register and drills down messaging from the national to regional and into communities.
Michelle Warburton, Strategic Lead at Salford CVS will share the lessons and actions that followed the 2015 Boxing Day Floods across Greater Manchester, and how the floods introduced better, more connected ways of working across the city regions.
A summary of what occurred during those 2015 floods is set out below:
Introduction
The impacts of Storm Eva on Boxing Day 2015 caused some of the most widespread flooding ever experienced in Greater Manchester. Prolonged, intense rain falling on already saturated catchments led to river levels rising rapidly. The heavy rainfall began on Christmas Day and lasted about 36 hours where many rivers reached record levels with some recording levels over one metre higher than previously recorded and 37 of 44 gauges in the River Irwell, Roch and Croal catchments recording their highest ever levels.
This caused significant impacts in local communities affecting homes, businesses, local infrastructure and the environment. Over 2,200 properties flooded internally across 65 communities in eight Local Authority districts. Internal sewer flooding was reported at 25 properties. An unknown number of additional properties experienced external flooding from sewers. The flooding caused numerous problems to important infrastructure and widespread travel disruption. Over 31,200 properties were initially left without power due to damage at electricity sub-stations and thousands of people were affected by widespread travel disruption. Several small bridges collapsed or were damaged during the flood and many more were damaged.
Before and during the flood
2015 was the sixth wettest year on record. December’s weather was substantially warmer than normal and this warmer air carried more moisture resulting in twice the long-term average December rainfall total, creating saturated catchment conditions over large parts of the Irwell catchment. The heaviest rain from Storm Eva on Christmas Day and Boxing Day was experienced over Pennine areas, mostly North of Manchester. In the preceding days, soils in these areas had become saturated and close to capacity.
The combination of prolonged average rainfall, saturated catchments, rapidly responding rivers and heavy showers on and around the 26th resulted in an extremely rapid onset of flooding. The sheer speed of response made the flooding very difficult to predict and placed a huge strain on the relevant authorities and responders.
Multi-agency response
The Greater Manchester Strategic Coordination Group (SCG), a multi-agency group which sets the strategic direction for an incident, was established at 1300 hours on Boxing Day. Shortly afterwards, the SCG declared a major incident. SCG tele-conferences then took place at two hourly intervals until 2300 hours. The final SCG was held at 0900 hours on 27 December, as the incident progressed into recovery and a Recovery Coordinating Group (RCG) was formed.
Teams from the Local Authorities, Environment Agency, United Utilities, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, Greater Manchester Police and the North West Ambulance service were on the ground in flood locations on Boxing Day, acting to minimise flooding and to support and assist those affected. Other utility companies, Highways England and Transport for Greater Manchester were also in operation.
Local Authorities were heavily involved in response to the incident both during and after the event. Council staff worked with volunteers in many places to provide intensive emergency response to support affected residents and carry out immediate clear up and waste disposal. Rest Centres were set up by several Local Authorities on Boxing Day for the welfare and accommodation of people displaced by flooding, either through property damage, access difficulties or loss of power supply. Local responses often involved the input of social and health care providers, local food banks and charities, working both at rest centres and within affected communities.
Lessons
Details of the Incident Management have been reviewed by the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum as part of a Multi-Agency Debrief. The debrief will ensure that the experience and lessons learnt from the Boxing Day flooding are used to inform future incident response and recovery procedures and include recommendations on how to manage future flood risk, which will require the involvement of multiple organisations and communities working together in partnership.
At this Thursday’s capability meeting, Salford CVS will speak of their work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Resilience Forum in the intervening years, as they share some of those lessons and actions that have been put into place.
Head here to register for the capability building event on understanding the National Risk Register.