The message
from David Buttery contains these words:

John Hall wrote in
:

snip
As if council members and their workforce were not stretched to the
limit / in the same boat (so to speak.) It is the worst peacetime
disaster that emergency services have had to deal with. (According to
C4 news.)

I think that the North Sea storm surge of 1953 was even worse, but I
agree with your point.
snip

If memory serves, it was a representative of Hereford & Worcester Fire &
Rescue Service (no longer officially "Fire Brigade" it seems, despite
holding on to the traditional title longer than many) who made the "worst
in peacetime" comment, speaking specifically about the Hereford & Worcs
area rather than the country as a whole.

The message that this was the biggest post war disaster that the
emergency services had had to deal with was abroad before the latest
downpour when little more than Hull, Sheffiled and Doncaster were
flooded. On the face of it they might be correct as the 1953 flood
allegedly only affected 25000 homes while the prior total was already
35000. However I think that the statistics are not comparing like with
like. In 1953 over 600 were drowned. The death toll in the current
calamity has yet to reach double figures.

--
Roger Chapman