How ready is Suffolk for the next major incident?

Snow storms, floods, tidal surges and fires have been among the crises declared major incidents in Suffolk in recent years.

There have been six since 2017. Five climate related, plus the Covid pandemic.

According to a UK framework for critical situations, a major incident is an "event or situation with a range of serious consequences which requires special arrangements by one or more emergency responding agencies".

With the government urging households to have three days' supply of bottled water and tinned food in readiness for war, an online attack or a natural disaster - how prepared are Suffolk's authorities?

Each county has a resilience forum, which brings together the organisations that respond to major incidents.

It includes the police, the transport police, the fire service, the Environment Agency, HM Coastguard, the NHS and councils.

The Suffolk Resilience Forum (SRF) offered support during the wildfire at Dunwich this summer and in Storm Babet in 2023.

Emma Dixon, SRF partnership manager, said: "During an incident we are really busy.

"It's being that coordinating team, ensuring what we call a common operating picture."

SRF is considered a "trailblazer". It was given additional government funding of £900,000 over three years to expand its work preparing for major incidents.

The money has paid for staff to look at climate data, community preparedness and a communications strategy.

Dixon said: "It's about getting weather ready.

"We've already booked in a summer preparedness workshop in April with Anglian Water.

"Do they think there will be a drought? And we'll have the fire and rescue service in, asking: what did we learn from this year?"

Dixon said the winter could be particularly challenging.

"Our climate is changing and weather events are becoming more extreme.

"We work with our partners to make sure we know what the risks are. We know our capabilities as a county and can train and exercise for those."

At Ipswich's Gainsborough sports and community centre, Suffolk's Joint Emergency Planning Unit (JEPU), made up of emergency planners from all the councils, is running a training exercise.

Ipswich Borough Council staff are practising setting up a rest centre and dealing with vulnerable people who cannot return home.

Courtney Walsh, head of JEPU, said rest centres were a fundamental responsibility for councils.

"Testing it just makes sure that we can do it right for real," he said.

"There are people playing different roles with different ailments, different situations the staff here need to deal with.

"That's important because you never know what you're going to get, who's going to be evacuated or what vulnerabilities they've got."

Lorrin Palmer, who works at Ipswich's Whitton sports centre, volunteered to be an evacuee who needed special assistance.

She said: "Today we were given a slip of paper and told what character to act. So mine was hearing impaired. I just had to act it out and let the staff react."

In July, holiday accommodation was evacuated at night after a fire on Dunwich Heath.

An evacuation and rest centre for about 100 people was set up in nearby Westleton. They were found places to stay, fed and kept informed.

Walsh says this type of set up is possible in Suffolk because JEPU works in a "unique" way.

"We formed this JEPU, which is the districts, borough and county council all coming together. Others (counties) tend to do it separately."

Suffolk is the only county in the East of England to have a JEPU.

Walsh added: "Having a shared unit just gives us more resilience. It gives us more staff to be able to work together and more access to resources that we can pull upon when we need them."

As part of the contingency plans, 1,000 airbeds and sleeping bags are strategically stored around the county in Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds and Ipswich.

Our weather this winter and next summer is due to be affected by the weather phenomenon, El Niño - a shift in weather patterns which raises sea temperatures.

BBC lead weather presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas said: "The El Niño episode we're currently experiencing is happening on top of background climate change, meaning weather extremes are becoming more frequent and intense.

"With the hottest summer and one of the driest six months on record, we could be prepared for a big swing, a weather whiplash from drought to flood as El Niño loads the dice for a wetter, stormier spell over the next few months, followed by potentially something colder and snowier late in the winter."

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