Consequence of the Ukraine war: "New crisis awareness" makes municipalities rethink

In view of current crises such as the corona pandemic, the consequences of the war in Ukraine and climate change, the Hessian municipalities are paying more attention to disaster control and civil protection.

Personnel capacities have already been expanded in individual districts and projects have been initiated, according to a survey by the German Press Agency.

This involves different scenarios - from the failure of critical infrastructure to heavy rain events.

For example, the Vogelsberg district is preparing for a possible power outage and its effects.

Due to the current situation, the topic of civil protection has gained in importance, a spokeswoman said.

"For this purpose, an additional position was created in the district administration, which will deal with the preparations in this area, which is to be understood as a long-term task."

IT security important topic

Important infrastructure facilities such as the control center or important servers had emergency power, the spokeswoman said.

Another topic is IT security, which is protected against attacks on the basis of the standards of the Federal Office for Security and Information Technology.

In addition to rescue equipment such as rescue and patient transport vehicles and emergency doctor vehicles, the district has two support and medical trains each with equipment vehicles and other vehicles for transporting patients.

In the event of a disaster, an additional stock of medicines and food will also be kept, but these are only sufficient for a short time, "so that supplies then have to be organized accordingly," said the spokeswoman.

"A civil protection team will be deployed to coordinate such measures."

The Odenwald district has increased its staff, especially with a view to the Ukraine war in the event of a crisis: A new position in the field of civil defense has been created in the “Fire and disaster control, rescue service” department, a spokesman said.

The main tasks are, among other things, the protection of the population from the dangers threatening in the event of a defense.

It is also about ensuring the ability of the district administration, fire and disaster control and the emergency services to act, as well as alerting the population.

In addition, events related to climate change, such as storm disasters, heavy rain events and dry periods with increased forest fires, are kept in mind.

Most recently, the President of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, Ralph Tiesler, called for better crisis prevention in Germany and explained that citizens should also ask themselves what they could do.

Together with Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), Tiesler presented a plan on Wednesday aimed at better preparation, earlier warning, more efficient action and good post-crisis care.

The district of Fulda said they shared Tiesler's assessment that a new awareness of the crisis was needed among the population.

“This isn't scaremongering, it just means that we should all be more aware of our vulnerabilities.

This is shown by the constant and changing challenges - whether due to Corona, climate change or the war in Ukraine.

Only those who recognize the crisis can act against it.” In addition to the population, all social groups as well as politics and all levels of administration are required.

In addition to informing the population, preventive measures include regular disaster control exercises and cooperation with cities and communities, as well as the newly launched heavy rain early warning system pilot project, in which the population is involved.

Failure of critical infrastructure

Hesse's largest city, Frankfurt, is dealing with issues such as the failure of critical infrastructure, extreme storm events and other major damage situations as part of preparatory projects, as a spokesman for the Frankfurt fire brigade explained.

It is about events that require a large number of emergency services to deal with.

There was only a large-scale exercise at Frankfurt Airport on July 9, which had no specific connection with current crisis situations and had been planned since November.

In addition, existing plans for special deployments would be checked to see if they were up to date.

Meanwhile, Hesse's Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) sees the state as well prepared for various disaster scenarios.

"In view of the war in Europe, we will further increase our commitment and at the same time also take into account the needs of civil protection, which is primarily a federal matter, in order to strengthen civil protection holistically," the minister said at the beginning of July.