The impact of Storm Eunice was felt across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight on Friday (18 February) when extreme winds hit the region.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service (HIWFRS) stood up the Service Incident Room to manage and maintain our response as well as provide support to other emergency services and partners.
A major incident was declared by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum on Thursday afternoon in response to the Met Office’s warnings that extreme winds would cause severe disruption across the south.
HIWFRS firefighters, Control room colleagues, officers and support staff worked tirelessly throughout the day as high winds hit the area from around 10:00.
During the peak hours of Storm Eunice (10:00 – 15:00) our Control room was alerted to more than 350 incidents, responding to emergencies across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, or providing advice to callers when there was deemed to be no danger to life. And our Urban Search and Rescue Team was deployed with chainsaws at strategic locations around the county.
Area Manager, Jason Avery, said:
‘I want to pay tribute to our officers, crews and our control room colleagues for the outstanding service they have provided across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight today.
‘Our control room operators took an unprecedented number of calls during the peak hours of Storm Eunice and were still able to provide support, reassurance, assistance and advice to many members of the public.
‘Most of the calls we received were about dangerous structures, with the storm ripping off roofs, tiles, scaffolding and signs.
‘Our thanks to the public for their patience and understanding as we prioritised those calls where there was a risk to life.’
Officers and firefighters – including many of our on-call colleagues – were deployed to incidents across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. For more details of some of the calls we attended see the incident log
Although the red alert issued in response to Storm Eunice was downgraded by the Met Office at 1500, an amber warning will remain in place until 2100 on Friday, with significant disruption still likely.
Weather conditions are expected to be changeable throughout the weekend and the public are urged to remain on alert and follow Met Office forecasts.
