London Flooded - Exercise Atlantis
In October 2007, the London Resilience Team held Exercise Atlantis. This was an opportunity for all those organisations involved in flood response and recovery, to come together and discuss their roles and how they expected to interact with their partners.
Maps simulating the effects of flooding over a 4 hour period were produced by the Environment Agency and used.
The exercise considered London’s response to a scenario where 4 areas of London were flooded at a result of a river breach.
Four different parts of London were ‘flooded’. This enabled partners to think about the range of problems they would face in the event of a real, large scale flood. Areas affected included:
- Power sub stations and gas works
- Sewage works
- Business parks
- Residential areas
- Transport infrastructure
Nearly 50 delegates attended the event attended from Blue lights, Local authorities, Transport agencies, Utilities, Business, Voluntary sector, and the Prison service. All agreed it had helped them to better understand the issues faced by colleagues in other organisations.
Work is now underway to review the London Flood Response Strategic plan in the light of this exercise and also the findings from the Pitt Review – learning lessons from the 2007 floods.
The Prime Minister gave a commitment to publish all of the regional debriefs covering the flooding events of the summer. The London Multi- Agency Debrief is now available from this page.
Local resilience forums are also looking at their borough plans to ensure that London is as prepared as it can be in the event of future flooding.
For any comments or queries concerning this page, please contact the London Resilience Team via ENQUIRIES-LRT@gol.gsi.gov.uk.