Operation CDale helps to keep communities safe

Partners from across Calderdale gathered earlier this month for the annual Operation CDale event.

Operation CDale is led by Calderdale Council’s emergency planning team to help organisations plan for a major incident. It brings together representatives from the emergency services, health care, utility companies, education, the voluntary sector and local and central government to run through an emergency scenario and discuss what a coordinated response could and should look like. Each year looks at a different type of emergency incident to make sure Calderdale is prepared to respond to a variety of different threats. With an increase in extreme weather incidents as a result of climate change, this year’s scenario focused an a major snow storm that knocked out power in parts of Calderdale and went onto cause flooding as a result of a rapid thaw.

This year’s Operation CDale was particularly fortuitous coming only days before the borough was hit by real rain and wind from Storm Babet. Partners were able to put learning from Operation CDale into action to respond to this real-life weather incident.