RAYNET dur­ing floods and chill 

With tem­per­a­tures expect­ed to fall below freez­ing in many parts of the Unit­ed King­dom, it brings even more wor­ry to res­i­dents in the flood­ed areas.

As recent rain trav­els through the riv­er sys­tems, tax­ing bridges and oth­er infra­struc­ture, ice and freez­ing fog are now the addi­tion­al hazards.

Four peo­ple have died since the wet weath­er struck last week and around 900 peo­ple in Eng­land and Wales have fled their water­logged homes. 

Ear­li­er, the Mid Sev­ern RAYNET (Radio Ama­teurs’ Emer­gency Net­work) group mem­bers were asked to assist by the Worces­ter­shire Coun­ty Coun­cil Coun­ty Vol­un­teers Emer­gency Com­mit­tee on Sun­day Novem­ber 25th, as a very short notice response for vol­un­teers was need­ed for flood preparation.

Due to the then ris­ing waters of the Riv­er Sev­ern, the Emer­gency Plan­ning Offi­cers were con­cerned about the poten­tial for flood­ing of adja­cent res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties in parts of Worces­ter city cen­tre, some which had been con­struct­ed after the floods of 2007.

The RAYNET teams com­plet­ed the task into the ear­ly evening and then stood down, with res­i­dents most appre­cia­tive of the efforts made to alert them. A full report can be found in the Forum sec­tion of the RAYNET web site.

Keep an eye on http://forum.raynet-uk.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=1565&title=raynet-flood-callout

RAYNET is ask­ing its 100 plus groups through­out the UK to report on their activ­i­ties prompt­ly, so a clear pic­ture of involve­ment in pos­si­ble ear­li­er, and just in case the ever chang­ing flood sit­u­a­tion esca­lates requir­ing out of area support.

Mean­while, in Scot­land, RAYNET Mem­bers were assist­ing the Loth­i­ans 4x4 Response
Group help­ing the Scot­tish Gas Board dur­ing the week which has been particularly
cold.

They were dis­trib­ut­ing heaters and check­ing on vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple in Clackmananshire.
The Cen­tre Con­trol used on 2m and 70cm to pro­vide addi­tion­al sup­port and
control.

- Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee,
with Greg Mossop G0DUB, IARU Region 1 Emer­gency Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coordinator.