Emergency Planning in the UK... I have a bad feeling!

OK so for those who haven't heard recently there have been drills across the UK to test how the emergency services would prepare for an earthquake. That's right an earthquake. Perhaps this is the UK government freaking out as a result of the Christchurch quake, which took place in an area far from any major fault lines. Or maybe they are using the earthquake as a guise to prepare in secret for something much more sinister.

When I first heard about these drills I certainly thought it was strange but it gets weirder yet and I am going somewhere with this. Here is a section of the story from the telegraph article;

Britain endures its fair share of elemental hardships: floods, storms, and even the occasional tornado. It is not, however, known for its high risk of catastrophic earthquakes.
But that did not stop police officers undertaking a three-day course training them to deal with a devastating tremor.
Officers from four British forces participated in the £826,000 exercise that simulated the consequences from a tremor measuring eight on the Richter scale hitting the country – something that has never happened and probably never will.
The teams were called in to work with European and Middle Eastern officials for the “extremely unlikely” crisis.

www.telegraph.co.uk...
www.dailymail.co.uk...

In the middle of the largest financial crisis the country and indeed the world has faced in a long time £826, 000 is a lot to spend on a drill for a disaster which might never happen. Perhaps this is seen as a long term investment as the unpreparedness should such an event occur could result in even greater financial tribulations. But this will be hard to reconcile with people who have lost their jobs, or those who are facing the chop due to the new budget cuts.

However something struck me as particularly odd about one section of the article;

Other mock earthquake scenes, involving hundreds of fire fighters, ambulance crews and a fleet of helicopters were held in Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire and Merseyside.

In Merseyside the mock exercise involved creating an “urban street scene” complete with burning buildings, trapped “victims” and 40 smashed up cars.

This would be a scene not uncommon during an earthquake for sure, and maybe a very useful exercise should one occur. So perhaps I am just being my typical paranoid self... Why Merseyside though?...

Then of course we have the recent comments suggesting that Britain, and in particular London is overdue a massive earthquake...Well one about 6 on the Richter scale, so massive for the UK. Which would apparently cause widespread damage to older structures.

Dr Roger Musson, of the British Geological Survey, is basing his prediction on historical records that show the repetition of a quake emanating from the Dover Straits in the English Channel.

www.telegraph.co.uk...
www.guardian.co.uk...
www.bbc.co.uk...

So maybe it's this guy's comments, Dr. Roger Musson, that everyone is getting so worked up about. Although he does state that it is incredibly unlikely and may not take place for several decades. So it seems illogical to me, to spend such a large amount of money on such drills, and also time and effort taken away from police and fire fighter's daily duties. Considering the event may not occur for ten years or more, if ever.

After a few days I put such paranoid thoughts out of my mind as per usual, and the day to day monotonous struggles of life got in the way distracting me from the issue.

That was until earlier this evening, when they were brought roaring back to the forefront of my consciousness after an email my other half received. After politely allowing my missus to use my laptop after I had finished perusing the boards on ATS hungry for knowledge. She opened her email as I went to make some tea, and as I stood there alternating dunks in each cup, she called from the living room "oh this looks kind of cool." So I left the tea stewing and went for a look at this interesting email.

I have copy and pasted the following for you to ponder. I have omitted obviously anything that may make her identifiable.

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Dear student,

Have you ever wondered how the emergency services plan for an emergency? How you ever wanted to take part in a major civil protection exercise? Well now is your chance!

On Sunday 3rd October 2010, the local emergency services and their multi agency partners (i.e. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Merseyside Police, North West Ambulance Service, Liverpool City Council etc) will be running a major multi-agency exercise - and you can be involved. The exercise will give you a valuable insight into how the civil protection is delivered, as well as a providing a unique experience.

The exercise planners are looking for 200 volunteers to play the role of cruise ship passengers who have become contaminated as the result of incident at the Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal. The exercise will be testing, amongst other things, the effectiveness of the decontamination process and the subsequent delivery of humanitarian assistance.

The exercise will attempt to be as realistic as possible; during the decontamination process there will be a requirement to dress down to swim wear (or shorts and a tee shirt) and you will need spare warm clothing.

Although timings have yet to be confirmed, the event is likely to start mid -morning and last for approx 3hrs. Refreshments will be provided on the day. Full joining details are to be confirmed.

A certificate of attendance will be provided for all students.

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The contaminant that the drill will be testing for is not mentioned. I find it highly unlikely it would be biological, but maybe it is something as simple as a E Coli outbreak on board. However I have since dismissed this notion, as the email does state that the drill will take place at the terminal. As in the dock on land, not at sea, or even on board the ship. For those who aren't familiar with Liverpool, the cruise liner terminal is right beside Liverpool's CBD, and the largest tourist destination in Merseyside. It also states there will be a process of decontamination. Unless they are suggesting there will be lots of sick and diarrhea around to clean up, I can only imagine this means hosing people down to remove chemicals or radiological material, by folks in Hazmat suits.

So you might be thinking that this is just a standard drill they happen all the time. This is true they do happen quite regularly, however when I cross checked the council training drills in the area on the Liverpool government website, it appears that the last round of Civil Contingency drills finished in June 2010. With a full public consultation beginning in the Autumn of 2010, as in now.

www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk...
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk...

This current drill has not yet been added to the site which suggest it is a fairly new addition. I have also since verified the email source to be the Liverpool government website i.e. [email protected].

I am paranoid that is definitely a given, I will not argue with anyone about that. But I am also not someone for predictions, that's not what I wanted to do here. I just want reassurance that I may be just plane ole crazy, and there is nothing to worry about. Because at the minute I can't help but have a bad feeling about this.

Rest assured I will be present for the drill on October 3rd and I will even take a few pics to post up. Only by experiencing it first hand can I truly know what the preparation is for. If anyone else received this email I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter too. It would most likely be sent to medicine students or those planning to work in the NHS.

Originally posted by Big Raging Loner
Middle Eastern officials

Men of middle eastern appearance eh?? Could be preparations for a false flag operation perhaps even while an exercise dealing with a similar event is ongoing as appears to have happened before iirc such an exercise also attended by Middle Eastern officials was ongoing as 7/7 was unfolding.

B.R.L.

I have to agree with you that at a time where money is tight and evryone is being asked to be careful with spending in the public sector then to have a series of large and costly drills about situations that might or might not occur is a little strange.

My theory is that the powers that be, or the councils are trying to spend as much of the budgets as possible so as to plead for the same next year... and I think next year WILL BE a lot harder and tougher than anything we have seen so far....

Maybe, like you suggest, TPTB know something we mere mortals don't !!! like in the big hollywood films like The Core et al..... and that all will become clearer later on But my feeling is that alot of the council and emergengy planners are thinking......' s***, how do we justify ourselves when nothing really happens....? I know , let's run a few exercises and scare the public into keeping us employed....

Regards

PurpleDOG UK

ps... BLT -- tonight is a goodnight for watching out for shooting stars........ clear skys in Derbyshire, but I'm off to sleep now..

reply to post by Thepreye


I had heard that, about the London bombings. Would make the situation all the more confusing.

All I can say is I will be down there to see what is going to happen. I can't find any more information about it at the moment. But in the email, it said that more information would be sent about volunteers signing up etc. So perhaps there will be a disclaimer, and a consent form which will give a bit more insight into the nature of the drill.

reply to post by PurpleDog UK


My theory is that the powers that be, or the councils are trying to spend as much of the budgets as possible so as to plead for the same next year... and I think next year WILL BE a lot harder and tougher than anything we have seen so far....

You may be right about that. Airport managment do the same thing, they constantly change their layout and appearance, are literally always under construction, just in case they loose their budget the next year.

If you take a look at the Daily Mail article there are loads of great pics of the quake preperation. It certainly looks like they went all out for operation Orion!

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


Is Hertfordshire where part of the SAS is based out of? Is there a military post near there? Name sounds familiar for some reason. I think that drills like this here in the states and the UK. Are preparing people for a martial law event caused by an economic meltdown. The earthquake preparedness is just a cover to keep the sheep asleep and content.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


I have been noticing this A LOT in the past couple of years - all over the world. America has been taking part in scenarios for events that 'probably won't ever happen' for many years now, see here. My thoughts on that subject can be found in the thread.

When did these events take place exactly? I only ask because I find myself living in the Merseyside area and my interest has been piqued

reply to post by rakkasansct


That would be Hereford not that it matters we're such a small place everywhere in England is just a "few" hours drive away.

I understand your paranoia, but it may also just be training for any kind of catastrophic event. As soon as a horrific event would happen and they were not prepared for it, people would lose their minds asking why they were not prepared. I don't understand why its so bad to try and prepare for an emergency. I have never had a tornado touch down where I live, but my family has a plan for it when and if it does.

Hey folks thanks for the replies!

You are certainly right about being prepared it only makes sense. What I found a little tricky about this particular drill was that it seems to be a fairly recent addition. I have also been unable to find any information about cruise liner companies running drills in the Merseyside area, which would have suggested that the exercise was being run by a private company.

This appears to be a government initiative all the way, and as far as I can tell it is pretty low key at this point. I suppose the only thing I can do is try an be present at the exercise, without getting myself in anybody's way, to get some first hand experience. I wonder as well why Merseyside in particular have been involved in two exercises in the past month, where as the city of Manchester has not?

Manchester is almost certainly the unofficial capital of the North and it would make sense to be running drills there too.

Originally posted by rakkasansct
reply to post by Big Raging Loner

 

Is Hertfordshire where part of the SAS is based out of? Is there a military post near there? Name sounds familiar for some reason. I think that drills like this here in the states and the UK. Are preparing people for a martial law event caused by an economic meltdown. The earthquake preparedness is just a cover to keep the sheep asleep and content.

edit on 20-9-2010 by rakkasansct because: (no reason given)

I was thinking the same thing exactly-using the guise of earthquake drills but in reality some other "PTB - engineered 'disaster'. It would be a convenient method of bringing martial law into play without anyone having time to question the rationale behind it all.

It's quite weird/ coincidental that whenever our local council carries out 'emergency drills' for a disaster-usually within 2 weeks theres a disaster of some nature.

The last 'disaster'/ natural weather damage in this area in New Zealand was flooding due to 3 days straight of heavy rain.

Thank goodness they don't run the 'drills' too often , only about twice a year I think.

Thought I'd post up some pics of Exercise Orion.

These are from the Merseyside drill;

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e21f750ce360.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/00e944ddb480.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/a8e80e06cab0.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/294a4c106034.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c21dac465220.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/46fb5683ff7d.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d154756c6c41.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


Where exactly on Merseyside?

Here's a pic and info about the Herefordshire component of Exercise Orion;

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/570cd2616817.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by LiveForever8


Well they apparently simulated a pile up in the Birkenhead tunnel, and devastation in the Croxteth area of Liverpool. So mainly in and around the inner city. Here's a video about the Merseyside element;

What I find interesting about Dan Steven's comments is that he states the earthquake is purely for academic purposes but really the drill is to simulate preparedness for disaster management from any number of causes.

reply to post by Big Raging Loner


I was just about to post the exact same thing...

"The fact that it was an earthquake really is academic, what we are interested in is the effect that it caused and that could be caused by any number of different reasons"

Very interesting indeed.

I suppose using the scenario of a terrorist attack might be too obvious in retrospect, but a nice unassuming, unlikely earthquake fits the bill perfectly.

The drill that I mentioned in the OP will be using more civilian volunteers than Exercise Orion which is something else I think you'll agree is very interesting. 200 volunteers will be present on the 3rd of October this could be subject to change, but if anything I can only imagine it will get more people involved. This is a much larger number of civilians than all of Exercise Orion 2010 combined. This is apparently due to volunteers requiring specific training to take part in Orion.

It seems to me that there are enough real problems in this world that could be addressed with all this man power and finances instead of making up this "pretend"s**t.

This world is all illusion and this just hits home the point more than ever. It just strikes me as absurd and wasteful when you have the disasters of social unrest and economic hardships right in your face, that the politicos ignore this to go play games. Just seems when there are no "war games" then they must devise "disaster games".

Why can't this energy and man power be put to a positive use? Why promote fear and negativity? Especially on something that may never even happen? This is just totally ludicrous. I think it is being used simply to stir fear and paranoia. Nothing good will come of this.

Each disaster game continues to waste our natural resources, finances, and man power. Think how much farther ahead we could be toward a better world if these factors were put toward creating and building something useful for the people...like housing that could sustain disaster, etc.

Looks to me like all of this is intended to promote even more destruction of the landscape and something to occupy the time of people who are on their employ so they can get a paycheck.

If they really want to "study" disaster, why not send them out to a real disaster to help?

This is all fear based politics at work.

The problem I have with the earthquake exercise is that if this massive earthquake isn't predicted for so many decades, whats the point of having one drill. You would need to have a drill every few years to keep the necessary skills fresh in the minds of the rescuers. So judging by this recent drill I would say that an earthquake or attack is imminent.

The largest recorded earthquake felt in Britain was in 1931 it measured 6.1. It is known as the Dogger Bank earthquake still it done hardly any damage because it hit off-shore. The largest quake since then was in 1984 it measured 5.4, I would say we are due for a fairly big quake but nothing on the scale of a magnitude 8.

I wonder what their up to?

Peace.
ALS

Also what the hell do middle eastern officials have to do with our domestic emergency response operation? Something sinister is a foot!

Eyes peeled people.