With the Drenthe Safety Region, there is still a lack of one integral plan in the event of large and long -term power outages. Earlier this week, the Justice and Security Inspectorate had to ensure the preparation of safety regions on these types of situations, without mentioning specific regions by name. There is also work to be done in Drenthe.
“Plans have been recorded, but it is more than putting the plans on top of each other and doing a staple through it,” says Bart Raaijmakers of the Drenthe Security Region (VRD). If this plan comes, he cannot indicate yet. “This has plenty of our attention. We have taken a number of measures that help with the continuity of our organization and the crisis organization in the event of a power failure. So we are prepared for that.”
With most safety regions, fifteen of the twenty -five, there is no concrete plan for themselves how they can continue to work without electricity as a crisis organization, the investigation of the inspection has emerged. He calls that “worrying”.
The VRD regularly practices scenarios to prepare for the effects of power outages in Drenthe. “In our regional risk profile, failure of vital facilities in Drenthe is stated because of the great impact that this has on society. We also practice this scenario. Our fire brigade posts are not all provided with an emergency power supply, but this does not directly imped our primary task,” says Raaijmakers.
The Justice and Security Inspectorate indicates that it should also be practiced on a large power outages that last a few days. The inspection thereby refers to the recent major power outage in parts of Spain and Portugal. It took a few hours, but the consequences were immediately noticeable.
Mobile networks were out, making calling and using the internet impossible. Hospitals had to switch to emergency aggregates, public transport was largely no longer driving and pin devices did not work.
The Inspectorate advises the safety regions not only to practice with the other regions on a large scale within its own region, but also on a large scale. They must assume a power outage that lasts longer than 48 hours.