BBC Radio Cumbria

What if flood water was lapping at your front door?

Victims of the Carlisle floods

Or what if there was a chemical leak and you needed to evacuate your home in the middle of the night – would you know what to do?

What about your family and friends who live away – perhaps due to work or university or maybe you have elderly parents in another part of the country or a vulnerable neighbour down the street - could they cope during an emergency?

‘What if?' was a 3-day campaign running on BBC Radio Cumbria designed to help you and your family be better prepared to face some of the challenges which life can throw at us.

Buncefield Fire

We cannot prepare for every single eventuality but there are some common problems that might result from floods or fire – power failures,  loss of water supply or loss of communications like phones – for which we can prepare.

BBC Radio Cumbria's Liz Rhodes was joined by experts from our Local Emergency Planning Departments - Police, Fire, medical and utilities as well the Environment Agency and Met Office – who offered some simple measures which could help you cope with the risk of flooding, fire, chemical leaks or even pandemic flu.

News 24: London bombings 7/7

The information isn’t rocket science – many of the messages we’ve heard before, like checking the batteries in our smoke alarms – however as we all know it’s one thing to hear a message and another to act upon it.