MAKING the call to declare a major incident as Storm Desmond edged closer Cumbria is something the Environment Agency’s chief officer will never forget.

Stewart Mounsey was area duty manager at the time and was on night shift on December 5 and 6.

He can clearly remember the phone call he made to Cumbria Police's operations centre asking the force to raise the level of emergency response required.

He said that while there were incident and evacuation plans in place, the Environment Agency (EA) it's partners, including the police and councils were faced with an "unprecedented" flooding event.

“We do our forecasts five days ahead. We knew there was something big coming. There was a red warning from the Met Office and we were preparing for that," said Mr Mounsey, flood risk manager for Cumbria.

“I distinctively remember on the night of the 5th, when the radar really started to firm up what rainfall we were going to get, and having to make a call to the police and saying this was going to be a big event. I can still remember making that call.

“There were two emotions. One is the fear of you know what it’s going to do to people’s lives and the second is about getting on with the job you need to do as well.

“The second night I was on, I remember being in the incident room and planning the sequencing of the evacuation with the police to evacuate Carlisle.

“Our office is based in Penrith and there was a helicopter rescuing people from Eamont Bridge. That connects you to the personal aspects of flooding.

“It’s hugely frightening for people at the time but also has long-lasting effects as well.”

He added: "It was a real team Cumbria effort and we’ve got to reflect on that. Clearly it was unprecedented. We had incident plans in place and we did the best based on those plans.”

Mr Mounsey explained that lessons learned from Storm Desmond - which brought 1.15 trillion litres of rainfall to Cumbria in just 48 hours - have helped shape the national response to flooding.

The EA’s team in the incident room at Penrith in response to the floods grew from 50 to 100 people. Additonal resources were needed as they moved into the recovery phase, when up to 300 people were involved. It’s a structure that is now standard practise across the EA areas.

The agency has 10,000 staff with 6,500 who are now trained in different roles. Staff are on call 24/7 to respond and step up into a shift pattern when there is risk of a major flooding event. They also work more closely with partner agencies as a result of the lessons learned in 2015.

But he said across the county an average of less than 50 per of people whose properties are at risk of flooding are signed up to flood warnings - something that can buy time and put their minds at ease, knowing they are prepared and have actioned their flood plan.

“The defences were are putting in Carlisle protect up to Storm Desmond level,” said Mr Mounsey. "Other places have different levels of protection.

“We can never protect against every flooding event and that is where we ask people to look at their own circumstances and sign up to flood warnings.

“There is a real mix in Cumbria. In some areas less than 50 per cent are signed up to flood warnings.

“We have done surveys around mental health and the impacts of flooding. The more warning they have and time to get things upstairs and protect valuable possessions, the better it is in terms of their mental health.

“A lot of people in Cumbria, particularly at this time of year are very worried about every event that happens.”