RESIDENTS living in rural parts of Northumberland have been urged to prepare for extreme weather following the devastation caused by Storm Arwen last year.

The storm’s high winds caused chaos when it hit on November 25 last year, causing widespread power outages, uprooting thousands of trees and disrupting communication.

Northumberland was one of the worst affected areas, and the county council commissioned a review task and finish group to work out what could be done in order to prevent a repeat of the widespread disruption.

At last Wednesday’s meeting of the council’s Community and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee, a report on “community resilience” was presented to members – the first in a series of reports on the recommendations produced by the task and finish group.

At the meeting, councillors felt the public needed to do more to prepare for similar emergencies; particularly those living in rural communities which are in more danger of being cut off from services.

Cllr Colin Horncastle, who represents the rural South Tynedale ward and is cabinet member for community services, said: “What I would say is in my experience, going around the South Tynedale area, there was an awful lot of people not prepared for the weather and certainly not prepared for a storm.

“The number of people ringing me saying they had no electricity and no way of heating food – what are you doing living here? The county council will do anything it can in an emergency, but people need to look after themselves.

“I’m not talking about the vulnerable people, but people have to start thinking about simple things like having a gas camping stove. There is such a thing as self-help.

“The older generation were far better prepared than the younger keyboard warriors.”

Cllr Richard Dodd added: “It’s tiny little things like candles and matches, things we used to do years ago, but we’re no in a false sense of security. You might save yourself a big problem.”

It was agreed to work on communicating the need for people to prepare for such damaging weather events by printing advice leaflets and including some advice in the next addition of the Northumberland magazine, due to be distributed in December.

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