The Beast From The East
Photo courtesy of 'Geograph'
OUTLINE
With major warnings in place, including 'Danger to Life' and 'Red' warnings, blizzard conditions swept across Britain within 48 hrs... We were ALL warned! We all knew Storm 'Emma' was coming.
We all had at least a 5 day warning lead, but was this enough?
Were we prepared for the worst conditions in 35 years?
Across the country between 3 and 28 cm of snow fell in a blanket of snow and ice, high winds, snow drifts and a variety of tempertatures ranging from -5 to -14 Celsius.
OBSERVATIONS
What I saw and heard about was the usual chaos:
Once the storm hit, emergency services were at capacity. Minor vehicle faults were magnified by cold weather.
Stranded motorists chanced their hand at travel and hundreds of drivers were stuck overnight, some even blaming 'insufficient help' and lack of help.
The Army were drafted in, in some locations, to support the worst hit areas and indeed the unprepared.
Across the country, transport provision suffered and the infrastructure could not cope. Trains were delayed or cancelled, leaving many stranded. In one case the doors of a train froze shut in only -5c conditions.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled.
Many who were either rescued or delayed away from home were forced to seek accomodation in Hotels, I wonder how many had overnight gear.
Water supplies in rural areas were threatened due to frozen pipes, leading to a water deficit/shortage.
I heard tales of broken boilers from fragile heating systems and the resulting heating system failures. Vulnerable citizens including the elderly were more reliant on support including the increased threat to life for homeless people living on the street.
Governmental agencies provided sufficient warning. Those unprepared had the chance to put in place alternative contingencies or gather extra provisions, however, many people had insufficient food supplies beyond 3 days leading to an increased reliance on others.
The sudden realisation that personal food stores were not sufficient led to a rush to the Superstores and many stores saw the usual scramble for short term perishables such as bread, milk and fruit/veg – These were the first things to go (including my favourite – bananas)!
From my perspective, our taps froze, resulting in switching to my emergency water plan (my reserve tanks and water bladders).
We see similar problems during every unusual weather event. Yet people forget! They think they will be ok, without even any kind of analysis to either their situation, stores or their skills (driving in this case).
At one point a Lidl superstore was broken into with a mechanical digger and looted (just days into the event).
Personally I will:
- Look at extra provision for our water storage and emergency coal/wood supply.
- Increase awareness in my immediate area for the locations of resources, services and facilities.
- Be more aware of the resources and situation of neighbours in order to assess their longevity.
(Courtesy of Wikimedia.org)
CONCLUSION
The 'Dunkirk spirit' was all fun n games initially, but I feel given a longer time-frame, the outlook would have taken a darker shade of grim (It was only 5 damn days!).
The fine line of goodness did not run out, with thanks particularly to the relatively short lived snowstorm.
One thing is for sure, the 5 days of snow and freezing temperatures demonstrated not how fragile our infrastructure is. The lack of training and self awareness the general public has with ANYTHING out of the ordinary only contributes to the bedlam.
The driven hunger by weather stations to out compete their rivals, sensationalise forecasts and cry 'WOLF' too many times in the past has led to the loss of faith by the general public to believe forecasts. This in turn led to an under-estimation of the effects of the February 2018 SNOWPOCALYPSE!
From the warmth and security of my 'prepared' location, I sat, watching the unolfolding examples of extreme cases portayed by the MainStream Media, I could only roll my eyes in the contempt of others and their lack of contingencies. We are only 9 meals away from chaos!
We now await the flood risk.