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Alarm siren on the roof of an apartment building: The number of functional sirens is higher today than it was a few years ago
Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa
To warn the population, tens of thousands of sirens are available for the test alarm this Thursday, in addition to other channels nationwide: "So far, around 38,000 sirens have been recorded," said the President of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK), Ralph Tiesler, in an interview with the German Press Agency. However, a complete and up-to-date picture of the functional sirens installed in Germany will not be available until 2024, he added. "The nationwide siren cadastre is to be available as a platform with up-to-date data in the course of the coming year."
Cell Broadcast is also to be used to warn again
At around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, the third nationwide warning day, the Federal Office will trigger a test alarm. This is disseminated, among other things, via warning apps, radio and television stations as well as via almost 6600 digital display boards. Cell Broadcast is also to be used to warn again. Every mobile phone user who is in a certain area with the mobile phone switched on receives a text message announced by a sound, provided that the device is not too old and the necessary updates have been made.
The number of functional sirens is higher today than it was a few years ago. After the end of the Cold War, the devices were considered superfluous in many places. No one knows exactly how many sirens there were five years ago or ten years ago. After all, disaster control is a matter for the federal states, and a nationwide overview is only now being drawn up.
At the first nationwide warning day in 2020, a lot had gone wrong, which is why the then BBK boss, Christoph Unger, had to vacate his post at the time. The second test on December 8, 2022 went better. "Overall, we can be quite satisfied with a rate of around 90 percent across all warning channels combined," said Tiesler.
The head of the authority, which in the past was often accused of stirring up panic with its calls for self-protection, now sees the population in a better position when it comes to personal provision for crises and disasters.
In the dpa interview, he said: "Our campaigns and events such as the corona pandemic, the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, but also the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine have ensured that people are more concerned with personal precautions for crisis and disaster scenarios."
The BBK can see this from the results of a survey that the Bonn-based office has been conducting regularly for a year and a half.
swe/dpa/afx