Are you prepared for an emergency situation?

Before individual precautions are listed, we call our present living environment into consciousness: In recent decades, major upheavals have changed Europe and thus also Switzerland (mechanisation, digitisation, industrialised agriculture, mobility, centralisation, etc.). Our supply of essential goods and the facilities that contribute to it are functioning virtually smoothly, giving us a high standard of living.

Modern supply

Our supply takes place “just in time”. The producer has no large stocks the products are in trucks, railway wagons, ships or airplanes on their way to the consumer. Agriculture has also changed; it is now highly specialised and mechanised to remain competitive. The diversified farm with cows, chickens, pigs, grain cultivation, some vegetables and fruit is almost only found in children’s books, even if many regret it. In most cases, our water supply runs via larger interconnected systems with countless pumps and sewage treatment plants.

Vulnerable electronic systems

Large streams of people move across the country every day. Many of them regularly change continent. The traffic of the SBB (Swiss federal railways), aviation, shipping and motorised traffic is managed and regulated electronically. Shops, hospitals and commercial enterprises also benefit from innovative software solutions that control and monitor small and large systems, thus relieving us of a lot of work.
All our communication is now based on electronic equipment and enables completely different work and behaviour processes. The world has changed rapidly. But it has become much more sensitive to disruption. A few recent blackouts have reminded us of this.

The classic emergency supply is “basic”

Everyone can take some precautions in their personal household and in their environment, which are relatively easy to manage and which can help over the initial period of an emergency. “Classic”, and expressed in modern terms, “basic”, is the emergency supply that our grandparents already knew.
The Federal Office for National Economic Supply (Bundesamt für wirtschaftliche Landesversorgung BWL) recommends an emergency supply with sufficient food for one week and water for 3 days:

• Beverages: 9 litres of water (1 sixpack) per person, further drinks
• Food for about one week. For example rice, pasta, oil, convenience food, salt, sugar, coffee, tea, dried fruit, muesli, crisp bread, chocolate, UHT milk, hard cheese, dried meat, canned food
• Consumer goods: Battery operated radio, torch, spare batteries, candles, matches/lighter, gas cooker
• and in addition regularly needed hygiene articles and medicine, some cash, food for pets.

Of course, a larger supply can also be stocked, but you should be able to handle it so that the goods do not spoil. You can also find more informative guidelines on the website of the BWL.

Prepared with alertswiss.ch

Anyone who wants to be prepared for various crisis situations should inform themselves via the Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP (www.babs.admin.ch). Via the app or the homepage www.alertswiss.ch the user is guided to personally think about possible crisis situations in advance. In addition, he can participate in an alarm chain.
In principle, however, alerts in Switzerland are carried out by siren and radio. This is because smartphones or the telephone networks fail in the event of a major power interruption.
In order to be prepared for the various crisis situations, should they occur on a larger scale, it is advisable to get to know our Swiss security system and to know how and where one can make a personal contribution. Information about this will be provided in a further article.    •