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Standing between Lancashire and chaos
Severe floods, swine flu outbreaks, raging fires, terrorist attacks, nuclear contamination - the list is endless.
Every conceivable emergency is possible and Lancashire has to be ready.
Already this decade emergency planners have dealt with the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001, the Morecambe Bay cockle picking tragedy in 2004, the stranded Riverdance ferry near Blackpool in 2008 and the Rossendale gas explosion of 2008 – to name but a few.
Bernard Kershaw has led his 12-strong emergency planning team at the county council's Red Rose Hub in Fulwood through most of these incidents, putting in practice sophisticated plans to ease their worst "human effects".
They help the 999 crews deal with the aftermath of the crisis, whatever it may be.
Bernard's team has put together around 30 plans to tackle a series of issues, each regularly tested after months of intense planning.
He says: "When planning, you can generally look at the areas which would be vulnerable.
"We have major rivers in the county such as the Lune and the Ribble so there's a greater chance of flooding there and if you move to industrial areas, the consequences of fire become quite important such as at the Red Scar estate where there was a major fire in 2007."
He says a major part of that process is keeping up-to-date records of the plans and contacts such as councils, emergency services, health workers and voluntary groups including the Red Cross and Samaritans.
These can all provide specialist support in the event of Lancashire entering meltdown.
For more on the exciting work of Bernard and his team see the New Year's Day Lancashire Evening Post.
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Weather for Preston
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -6 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -2 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
