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Severe weather response efforts put to the test

St Margarets Church/BBC Weather Watchers A tree down on a church roof in New GallowaySt Margarets Church/BBC Weather Watchers
Southern Scotland was under a red weather warning during Storm Éowyn in January

A staged mock emergency is to be held in the south of Scotland to test how well the local community is prepared for the impact of severe weather.

It comes in the wake of Storm Éowyn in January which saw many parts of the region without power for several days.

The hour-long scenario will be played out at the Throughgate in Dalry between 11:00 and 12:00 on Wednesday.

It has been organised by the Loch Ken Trust, Dumfries and Galloway Climate Hub (DGCH), and the community council's resilience team.

Jenna Cains, from DGCH, said they would make it as realistic as possible.

"It is going to be quite a chaotic scene - we hope not too alarming - but it is going to include a set-up of casualties and a vehicle and emergency services and the resilience team," she said.

"It will be a real test of what do you do when it really comes to the crunch - what are you prepared to do, what are you ready to do?

"These are the thoughts that we need to be considering in the face of a changing climate."

A woman with long brown hair in a red jumper and black cardigan sits at a laptop on a wooden desk with a map in the background
Jenna Cains said the test exercise would be as realistic as possible

Ms Cains said she did not want to "give the game away" but the scenario could be quite similar to the issues faced by the area during Storm Éowyn.

"The bottom line is the communities in the Glenkens have quite a strong awareness of resilience and some of them have strong plans, such as Dalry," she said.

"It is really a test of those resilience plans and those resilience reactions as well."

She said that needed to take into account everything that could happen in an extreme weather event - and in the days that followed it.

"Electricity can sometimes be knocked out for a number of days," she said.

"You need to really be aware of who are the vulnerable people in your community and what are their needs.

"Are there people in your community that need home carers, are there people who are vulnerable in different ways?

"These are all the things that you need to be thinking about in your resilience plan."