There will be nationwide test alarms in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia this Thursday. Millions of cell phones are supposed to beep at 11 a.m. The warnings are triggered via the MoWaS modular warning system of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK). The warnings don't just reach cell phones; in large cities like Düsseldorf, warnings are also displayed on taxi roof monitors.
Advertisement
In order to reach many people, cities and municipalities will also distribute the warnings via the Internet, social media and radio. According to the Ministry of the Interior there, the warnings should be visible on around 1,500 digital display boards in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, most people have so far been reached via cell broadcast, or the unidirectional SMS-CB.
“In areas that are particularly at risk or in the vicinity of facilities with particular risk potential, the population is warned not only with radio announcements, but also with sirens and loudspeaker vehicles,” according to a statement from the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior. To this end, Bavaria has also issued a regulation on public sound signals. Bavaria also provides information material, such as a table showing (PDF) which warning devices the municipalities use.
Cell Broadcast in Deutschland 2023
Cell Broadcast was put into operation for the first time in Germany on February 23, 2023 after previous tests, and Austria will also follow suit in the summer. Since then, more than 100 warnings have been transmitted via cell broadcast in Germany, by far the most of which were in North Rhine-Westphalia (60), followed by Rhineland-Palatinate (32), Bavaria (25) and other federal states. Half of all warnings were caused by a fire or fire gases, and a fifth were caused by natural hazards – 12 percent of the warnings were caused by the discovery of bombs and ammunition.
“The warning must reach everyone in the country. That's why we're making a big racket on the nationwide warning day using cell phones, sirens, loudspeakers and much more to really wake up all 18 million people in North Rhine-Westphalia,” said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul ( CDU), who wants to personally trigger the siren alarm in a Düsseldorf fire station.
According to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, around 6,150 sirens are currently in use, 1,900 more than in 2017. The federal states want to further expand their siren networks, which is made possible, among other things, by the siren funding program.
“For the tenth time, North Rhine-Westphalia is practicing in this form for emergencies. In 2018 there was the first nationwide warning day. The NRW model has now also been adopted for the nationwide warning day,” says the state of NRW.
Federal states are preparing
The decision in favor of Cell Broadcast followed the devastating flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate in July 2021. Since then, the states have been issuing warnings on the nationwide warning day. “Saxony-Anhalt will once again take part in the nationwide warning day on September 12, 2024 this year,” says a spokeswoman for the Ministry of the Interior there. The situation is similar in Baden-Württemberg. “In addition to a test warning triggered centrally by the BBK via the modular warning system, municipalities will again have the opportunity to participate on site in order to test local warning devices, such as loudspeaker trucks or sirens,” explained a spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior.
No separate warning day is planned in other federal states such as Thuringia. However, according to a spokesman, the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs has “carried out an awareness campaign on 'population warning and disaster protection' in order to strengthen the self-help and resilience skills of the population, also with regard to the topic of warning.” Further information is available on the website Sicher-und-gewarnt.de. But the other federal states are not idle either. Some are purchasing new special vehicles and sirens, others are purchasing fire department management software. Rhineland-Palatinate recently celebrated 25,000 users on its fire and disaster protection portal.
(mack)