Imagine that there is no electricity throughout Brabant: gas stations are closed, lampposts and traffic lights do not work and all lifts stand still. In Spain and Portugal that was for equal reality this week. What would happen if the current fails in Brabant? How well is our province prepared?
Marieke van Wijk is head of crisis communication at the Central and West Brabant Security Region and knows all about it. “The first thing you notice is that there is a power outage is that people are stuck in the elevator. In Spain and Portugal, people had to be rescued en masse this week. That also happened in February at the major power failure in Breda. At that time, households were without electricity. Also in traffic was because the traffic lights did not work.”
This is how it looked during the major power outage in Breda:
Golden hours
Communication is important and difficult if the electricity fails, Van Wijk knows. “That is why we also call the golden hours for the first two hours. Then the telephone lines are still doing it and we have to switch quickly, inform residents and make agreements with other safety regions and municipalities.”
After those two hours everything comes out. “Then we also do not know where there is a fire and whether there are people stuck in a lift. Then we have to work old -fashioned with, for example, transmitting equipment or just drive up and down to tell a message,” she says. But that too is difficult. “After a while the gasoline is up and gas stations also do not work in the event of a large power outage.”
Emergency aggregate
Fortunately, the safety region has a solution for that. “We have agreements with companies that have large quantities of diesel, for example in oil tankers. This allows us to provide our cars and emergency aggregate with fuel.”
Emergency aggregate is also a great friend at the Máxima Medical Center in Veldhoven. “All facilities, installations and equipment continue to work through emergency power aggregates. All care activities can therefore continue,” the hospital reports. The hospital also practices with situations where important facilities fail. “Every year we perform an emergency flow test and it is tested weekly whether the emergency power aggregates work.”
Visible on the street
Van Wijk continues: “The electric devices of the fire brigade cannot be charged and the vehicle systems also have problems. It is especially difficult to help people in need because nobody can reach the control room. That is why we have to be visible on the street. Together with the Red Cross we then set emergency support points where people can go with questions.”