Warntag: North Rhine-Westphalia to test emergency sirens for 10th time
All cell phone users in Germany's most populous state are set to receive a piercing alert on their phones Thursday at 11am during the 10th 'Warntag' (warning day). Why is the drill taking place?
There will be another statewide test alarm in North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday. At 11am, the state's 6,150 sirens will wail and millions of mobile phones - even those set to silent - will ring.
Warnings are also to be issued again via cell broadcast. That means that all mobile phone users who are in a certain area with a switched-on mobile phone receive a text message accompanied by a shrill noise.
The warning message from the state government's situation centre will also be sent to the media, warning apps, and digital information boards.
"We learn something new every year and make adjustments in areas where we can improve," Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) told DPA.
This year, the warning will also be displayed on around 1,500 digital information boards in NRW's cities including Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Münster.
Tenth warning day in NRW
For the tenth time, North Rhine-Westphalia is practising for emergencies through these piercing alerts. The first state-wide warning day took place in 2018.
According to the mobile phone operator Vodafone, the test alarm will sound on 15 million mobile phones at the same time. For the first time, older phone models are also able to receive the alerts.
A cell broadcast alert in Heimersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate in December 2022. The alerts were issued there and in North Rhine-Westphalia before they were rolled out to the rest of Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Thomas Frey
Cell broadcast was first put into operation on February 23rd, 2023. Since then, residents in affected areas in NRW have been warned of dangers around 60 times - mostly due to major fires, bomb defusals and extreme stores.
READ ALSO: New emergency broadcast system rolled out throughout Germany
The decision to introduce the mobile alert system throughout Germany was made after the devastating flood disaster in NRW and Rhineland-Palatinate in July 2021.
In the aftermath of the catastrophe, which saw 134 people lose their lives, authorities were accused of not giving residents adequate warning to evacuate the area.
Nationwide warning days
Germany has also issued a few nationwide warning days, with the last in September 2023 and the next scheduled for September 2024, by which point an up-to-date list of functioning sirens in Germany is to be released.
The number of sirens is higher today than it was a few years ago, even though there are still no sirens at all in some parts of Germany.
After the end of the Cold War, the devices were considered superfluous in many places and were no longer repaired - or completely dismantled.
In the meantime, however, efforts are being made to change this, with corresponding funding programmes devoted to building or repairing sirens.
The number of trial alerts in Germany also pales in comparison to many other countries. The Netherlands, for example, has a similar density of sirens in relation to the size of its national territory, where a test alarm is sounded on the first Monday of every month.
READ ALSO: All cell phone users in Germany to be part of disaster 'warning day'
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There will be another statewide test alarm in North Rhine-Westphalia on Thursday. At 11am, the state's 6,150 sirens will wail and millions of mobile phones - even those set to silent - will ring.
Warnings are also to be issued again via cell broadcast. That means that all mobile phone users who are in a certain area with a switched-on mobile phone receive a text message accompanied by a shrill noise.
The warning message from the state government's situation centre will also be sent to the media, warning apps, and digital information boards.
"We learn something new every year and make adjustments in areas where we can improve," Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) told DPA.
This year, the warning will also be displayed on around 1,500 digital information boards in NRW's cities including Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Münster.
Tenth warning day in NRW
For the tenth time, North Rhine-Westphalia is practising for emergencies through these piercing alerts. The first state-wide warning day took place in 2018.
According to the mobile phone operator Vodafone, the test alarm will sound on 15 million mobile phones at the same time. For the first time, older phone models are also able to receive the alerts.
Cell broadcast was first put into operation on February 23rd, 2023. Since then, residents in affected areas in NRW have been warned of dangers around 60 times - mostly due to major fires, bomb defusals and extreme stores.
READ ALSO: New emergency broadcast system rolled out throughout Germany
The decision to introduce the mobile alert system throughout Germany was made after the devastating flood disaster in NRW and Rhineland-Palatinate in July 2021.
In the aftermath of the catastrophe, which saw 134 people lose their lives, authorities were accused of not giving residents adequate warning to evacuate the area.
Nationwide warning days
Germany has also issued a few nationwide warning days, with the last in September 2023 and the next scheduled for September 2024, by which point an up-to-date list of functioning sirens in Germany is to be released.
The number of sirens is higher today than it was a few years ago, even though there are still no sirens at all in some parts of Germany.
After the end of the Cold War, the devices were considered superfluous in many places and were no longer repaired - or completely dismantled.
In the meantime, however, efforts are being made to change this, with corresponding funding programmes devoted to building or repairing sirens.
The number of trial alerts in Germany also pales in comparison to many other countries. The Netherlands, for example, has a similar density of sirens in relation to the size of its national territory, where a test alarm is sounded on the first Monday of every month.
READ ALSO: All cell phone users in Germany to be part of disaster 'warning day'
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