A massive flood will take out the entire heart of government. Every ministry and major department will be forced to evacuate at short notice. Communications will be disrupted, data lost and key personnel unavailable. From interviews with senior officers and the study of procedural manuals, it is clear that while the Emergency Services are prepared for a major but contained incident, a terrorist bomb, an industrial accident, an airplane crashing on the city, they will be impossibly stretched in the event of serious and widespread tidal flooding.
The Met has its headquarters at New Scotland Yard. This falls within the flood zone so the Central Command Complex, including the Special Operations Room from which disasters are monitored, will have to move out to back-up facilities at the Police College, Hendon. All police vehicles within the zone will also be withdrawn.
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An additional concern is the strain on the NHS. At least twenty of the capital's NHS and private hospitals are at risk of flooding and likely to lose power and sanitation. These hospitals will be unable to receive flood casualties and will experience problems with resident patients, particularly those in high dependency units.