1:30pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
By David Paine
IT is a familiar sight in Worcestershire these days, but people needn’t worry – these flood barriers were being set up as part of a training exercise.
The Environment Agency’s (EA) local team was at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern yesterday to share its expertise and knowledge with teams across England and Wales.
The team, which has deployed the £300,000 portable barriers 11 times since 2008, mostly in Upton-upon-Severn, watched as EA operations staff took part in Exercise Swift. A flooding scenario was also played out in real-time in the Tewkesbury office.
The EA’s operations delivery manager Brian Jones said: “It has been a great day for all involved and lots of knowledge was shared. Teams from all over England and Wales were keen to put the barriers up with the help of our local team.
“Today’s exercise was a great example of how we are working together with other regions.”
The EA set up the exercise because teams from other parts of the country may be called upon to help out if there is a flooding disaster in the Midlands, similar to the nationwide response to the serious floods in Cumbria last year.
The temporary steel A-frame barriers, which can reach up to 350 metres (1,148 feet) in length, are overlaid with aluminium panels and covered with impermeable liner.
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