Life is full of surprises. This winter have certainly sprung a few on me. Nature stepping in and turning the whole of Bedfordshire county into a fairy white wonderland for a week was probably the largest of those surprises. Could we (as a nation) have planned for it? Possibly. Should we have? Probably not. Rare events with large consequences are often too rare to plan for. There is too little data to work from, and the events often occur in combination with other variables that throw out any planning. What we can do is plan for the 'general emergency': lay in some food, water, bandwidth and redundant backups so that whatever happens (fire, flood, riot, snow, aliens, meteors) the population is able to hunker down, minimise further disruption and generally wait it out until a proper response can be mounted.

Oh, and some natural disasters can be great fun, if you are prepared for them. Witness tracks above!