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I99 police helicopter footage of the Morpeth flood of 6th September 2008
About four months after the flood some members of the Morpeth Flood Action Group were invited to Northumbria Police headquarters at Ponteland, by ACC Greg Vant, to hear their side of what happened.
ACC Vant was the Gold Commander on the day of the flood.
At the presentation there was a video screen showing footage taken by the police helicopter, India 99, of events in Morpeth at about 5.30pm, just after the river peaked.
Naturally, we asked for a copy so that we could show it at one of our community meetings and also to give to Geoff Parkin of Newcastle University for his photographic analysis of the flood. It was duly sent to us.
We never did show it at a meeting. We found that all our committee members who had been flooded suffered trauma on viewing it with the volume turned on. We informed Northumbria Police of our decision not to show it and they respected our concern of the effect it could have on some members of the public.
It was not until one and a half years after the event, at our Flooding Awareness exhibition, that we showed it to the public, with the sound turned off.
Northumbria Police at first thought the video highlighted how well they had coped with the events, we thought it showed gross incompetence on their part.
ACC Vant has since been moved on and, as we understand it, the officer who was in charge of Silver Command has been assigned other duties.
Having seen what the police have done and how they now approach the problem of flooding we are sure that there will not be the confusion of 2008 if it ever happens again.
VIEW THE VIDEO HERE
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