Emergency preparedness in Norway: – DSB warned in meetings
This emerges from minutes of meetings from the Crisis Committee for Nuclear Preparedness (KU), which Dagbladet has been given access to. DSB’s director Arnstein Pedersen tells Dagbladet that for them it is almost a spinal reflex to remind them of this.
– An event rarely comes alone, and we must therefore always think about the challenges and consequences that can hit us at the same time – among other things considering that the same resources can be pulled in different directions, Pedersen tells Dagbladet.
– The war in Ukraine has sent many people fleeing. Norway must now make arrangements to receive and take care of the refugees who come here. At the same time as this situation, we must be prepared for a time when there is usually an increased risk of forest fires, spring floods and landslides, while the pandemic is still not over.
Warns
Pedersen warns:
– We may have a situation where several of these incidents occur at about the same time, and where several of the same resources need several places at the same time.
DSB pointed out this issue in the KU meeting which took place on 9 March. Then they repeated the issue in the KU meeting which took place on 18 March and met it again at the KU meeting which took place on 24 March.
Handling
Pedersen says that there are various tools that are used to contribute to a good and efficient handling of the situation, also with regard to challenges related to several incidents occurring at the same time.
– Information sharing and coordination is absolutely central to having a common picture of the situation, and to discussing professional and benefit tasks, Pedersen says.
As a result, DSB arranges public co-operation conferences at agency level and contingency meetings with state administrators.
– We also work continuously with continuity planning, to ensure that the company has the necessary continuity in the deliveries we are responsible for. Good and realistic contingency plans are an important basis for implementing measures when the situation becomes demanding, says Pedersen and continues:
– We have also introduced an increased level of preparedness in the organization, in order to be able to meet incidents with sufficient resources.
Population alert
Recently, the government, through the Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp), proposed the establishment of a mobile population alert system. This is to be able to quickly reach large parts of the population with information to save lives, health and property in the event of serious incidents.
The government hopes to have the system in place by the end of 2022. Director Pedersen explains that this is a so-called Cell Broadcast solution, which is a location-based notification system that can very quickly send out a notification to all mobile phones that are within a given geographical area.
– We are in the process of mapping the market and have relevant information and experiences from similar solutions in other countries, Pedersen says.