Been there, done it and got the t-shirt, twice....
Once in the late 70's with Devon & Cornwall in that sleepy hollow know as Newton Abbott. IIRC, we all got very wet, confirmed that the Ford Escort Mk 2's we used as Panda's had a zero wading capability and the canteen ran out of pies on the second day.
Being the late 70's there was very little H&S 'issues' every one just mucked in to get the job done, local farmers rocked up with tractors and trailers, fire brigade with pumps, even a sally army tea van!
Next time was in York, late 90's while at 34 Fd Hosp (now that was a different posting for a RE
) As per and in keeping with the units admin at the time there was zero organisation with the guys n gals initially being sent into York centre to help with the defences or was it to fill sandbags, hundreds and hundreds of sandbags... or was it millions? Cant remember but suffice to say it was a lot... Anyway we got to give the medics a crash course on how to build a sandbag wall and defences were put in place.
A few hours into the task it was sort of mentioned that a brew would be nice and when was the RQ turning up with the Hotboxes (remember those? just like the horror box but bigger) with lunch in. As it was one of the units cooks that asked the question and the rest of his mates were with him.....
Well, it rained, the river did what rivers do and just went past the sandbags and it flooded.... York Council then had zillions of wet sandbags to pick up
