“Prepare for emergencies now” is the plea from a body that works behind the scenes with organisations to ensure they are ready to respond to major incidents in Surrey.

The Surrey Local Resilience Forum (SLRF), which has been working with the emergency services, councils and the NHS, has redesigned the website surreyalert.info to provide people with planning advice in an emergency, along with any updates if a major incident happens.

Surrey Police’s assistant chief constable Jerry Kirkby, who attends the SLRF, said: “Major incidents are fortunately few and far between in Surrey, but when they do happen there is often little notice, so it pays to be prepared now.

“Despite this, the kind of incidents the SLRF plans for have happened in recent memory and will no doubt again some time in the future.

For example, parts of the county suffered serious flooding last November that made roads impassable. As we are all aware, the whole country is currently experiencing a significant flu outbreak and, with our close proximity and transport links to the capital, Surrey was rightly on high alert following the London terrorist attacks of July 2005 and the failed attempts in June 2007.

“To raise awareness of what residents, workers, students and other people in Surrey should do in these or other emergency situations, we have launched a campaign to promote the important need to ‘Prepare now. Know later’.

“I can reassure you that local agencies are well prepared for major incidents and continually strive to keep you safe, but we need you to do your bit too.”

A small fold-out booklet on how to prepare for emergencies and what to do if one happens has also been produced and is being distributed to elderly and vulnerable people in the county via services such as ‘meals on wheels’ and community wardens.

The credit-card-sized booklet has been designed to fit in wallets or purses and will be available at public buildings such as libraries and police stations towards the end of the month.

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