[20 July 2007]

Urgent message from East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service.

Following a huge influx of emergency calls in the region, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service are issuing an urgent message to the communities of East Sussex and the City of Brighton & Hove.

The wide spread rain fall has meant a dramatic increase in the number of emergency calls received by East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service and it is essential that we deal with emergency calls on a priority basis. We need to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to 999 calls that are life threatening, such as traffic collisions caused by weather, fires caused by short circuiting of electrics and flooding that effects electrics with the potential of causing fires.

It looks like we may have a very wet 24 hours, with the Met Office issuing flood warnings for most of the country. More general flooding, that is not affecting electrics and particularly flooding that has not yet entered property will need to be dealt with as much lower priority calls for now.

There are several steps that people can take to protect themselves or reduce the impact of flooding. Firstly, if water is rising outside the property, consider whether you can take temporary measures with homemade sand bags or earth embankments.

Anyone who lives in a flood risk area can register with the Environment Agencies Floodline Warnings Direct Service to receive flood warnings when flooding is likely. www.environment-agency.gov.uk. The Environment Agency Floodline Service Tel No: 08549 881188.

[Allison Gilson]