Exercise Tempest, kindly hosted by Jacobs in London, brought together Business Networks, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), Borough Resilience Forum (BRF) emergency planning teams and partners to explore how coordination and communication can be strengthened before, during and after a severe winter storm with cascading impacts. Insights from the Met Office reinforced that climate variability is increasing, with more extreme scenarios likely in the future. The Met Office also shared a new Local Authority Climate Service, which is free and available for all and may be useful to your organisation and your network. The service provides tools and guidance to help you better understand climate change in your local area and support your adaptation planning.
Below is a summary of the key preparedness and response considerations discussed during the event.
Session 1: Before the Storm | Preparedness
Communication and information sharing
- Clear, consistent and actionable communication is essential.
- Businesses should be aware of the actions to take on receipt of a weather warning.
- Weekend communication poses challenges (warnings may not reach key staff).
- Importance of filtering and verifying information to avoid misinformation.
- Need for updated contact lists and multiple communication channels (email, WhatsApp, Sentinel alerts), and redundancy, if a single point of contact is unavailable.
Preparedness and coordination
- Gaps identified between BIDs and BRFs, stronger connections and standardisation needed for non-statutory partners.
- Desire for hyper-local exercises and toolkits to help businesses prepare.
- Importance of knowing trigger points, when to escalate communication or activate plans.
- Earlier Met Office warnings (before weekends) would improve preparedness.
People and assets
- Protecting staff, critical assets and continuity of operations are top priorities.
- Businesses require additional support to understand their roles and responsibilities ahead of severe weather events, including clearer guidance on interpreting Met Office Impact Matrix and warnings.
Session 2: During and after the storm | Emergency response
Maintaining communication
- Acknowledgement that power and internet may fail, alternative methods (radios, loudhailers, physical outreach via cyclists) will be needed.
- Emphasis on trusted information sources and avoiding misinformation.
- Use of local authorities, community leaders and faith networks to relay messages.
Operational response
- Calls for pre-defined plans and directories of resources (e.g., generators, volunteers, shelters).
- Suggestion for a capability matrix to map who can support specific needs.
- Importance of coordination between BRFs, local authorities and businesses to share resources and avoid duplication.
Community and business roles
- Businesses should support, not burden, emergency services.
- Potential roles include offering premises, volunteers, cleaning teams or intelligence.
- Need for two-way communication, business networks feeding information back to BRFs.
- Consideration needed for vulnerable groups and those offline during disruptions.
Practical concerns
- Concerns about how payments or transactions would function without electricity.
- Recognition that small businesses may struggle the most and need targeted support and training.
- Questions raised about panic among the public and how businesses could manage this.
Preparing for severe weather: Three priority actions for businesses
- Strengthen communication systems
- Update internal and external contact lists.
- Set up multiple communication channels (email, WhatsApp groups, Sentinel alerts).
- Ensure there is a backup contact in case the primary person is unavailable.
- Develop or refine a pre-storm preparedness plan
- Identify trigger points that determine when to escalate communication or activate response actions.
- Ensure staff understand responsibilities and what to do when Met Office warnings are issued.
- Use toolkits or hyper-local exercises to test readiness.
- Protect people and critical assets
- Review staff safety arrangements and ensure well-being measures are in place.
- Identify critical assets and take preventative steps to reduce risk (e.g., securing property, safeguarding equipment).
- Ensure continuity plans are up to date and practical for a severe weather scenario.
Responding to severe weather: Three priority actions for businesses
- Maintain communication using multiple methods
- Use backup options if power or internet fails (radios, loudhailers, physical outreach).
- Share and receive information through trusted sources, including local authorities and community networks.
- Feed situational information back to BRFs.
- Support coordinated local response
- Use pre-defined resource directories to identify available assets (e.g., generators, volunteers, facilities).
- Avoid duplicating efforts by coordinating with BRFs and local authorities.
- Activate internal roles (e.g., responsible individuals, volunteers) to assist safely.
- Consider community and vulnerable groups
- Provide safe spaces or premises if appropriate and feasible.
- Adjust communication approaches to reach people without digital access.
- Support small or highly affected businesses through information sharing or collaboration where possible.
Overall, the exercise highlighted the need for actionable and verified communication, particularly when severe weather hits over weekends or disrupts digital channels. Stronger preparedness and closer relationships between business networks, BRFs and local authorities will be essential ahead of future events. Businesses also have a key role to play in resilience through preparation, communication and community support. Finally, joint planning, shared tools and local exercises can help address gaps in preparedness, coordination and contact networks.
