It is just after 5:30 PM and a car is on fire on the Utrecht square. The local resident who warned has been waiting for the fire brigade for several minutes. In the meantime. An older man that “suspicious persons peek in and feel”.
A woman in jeans reports a collision between two cyclists. Another woman says that further away someone is lying unconscious on the street. “It really doesn’t look good. She’s not doing anything. I called out a few times, but…” She shakes her head.
the municipality and the Utrecht Safety Region (VRU) think, if the power goes out for a prolonged period and residents can no longer reach 112. First, during a crisis exercise on Thursday evening, they tested with actors how an emergency support center could be set up and what questions residents could ask when a disaster occurs.
“A power outage is the scenario,” says Ivonne Vliek, resilience program manager of the VRU. “A cyber attack, war, network overload; a power outage is realistic. The difference with , is that these were local. Everything worked fine in the adjacent district or municipality.”
Drinking water
Emergency support points should be established throughout the country. The government writes in purple booklet Think aheadwhich was delivered to all households in recent weeks, which provides instructions and information in “different ways” in an emergency situation, “e.g. where an emergency support point is open in your area”.
Everyone in the Netherlands must have such an emergency support point ‘within walking distance’
Ultimately, everyone should have such a point “within walking distance”, said then Minister of Justice and Security David van Weel (VVD) in May. The government has allocated 70 million euros for “local and regional resilience”, which includes the emergency support points, from 2027.
This should fund several thousand emergency support points, which should be operational within an hour in a crisis situation. Next year, two pilots will be held in each safety region – fifty in total.
This Utrecht emergency support center is the first, and exercises are underway immediately. There is a poster on the door of the former school building stating what is not possible: it is not a shelter, there are no emergency supplies of food or drinking water, and you cannot charge your electrical appliances there. However, you can get “current, reliable information” and report something that will be “passed on” to the emergency services
The municipality, police, fire brigade, Red Cross and VRU safety region are simulating a large-scale power outage this evening in Utrecht, South Holland, parts of Gelderland and North Holland. Drinking water pressure is falling, sewerage is limited, public transport is at a standstill and the roads are filling up. It’s going to take hours.
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Walkie talkie
In the hall of the old school, someone is placed in a stable side position. In a corner, a woman lies on the floor, a first aid bag under her head. At the information desk, manned by a public care official (in an orange fleece sweater) and a Red Cross volunteer (in red), questions come in at a rapid pace.
It’s 6:15 p.m. The boas and municipal officials come in. Marleen Lubberdink gives them a briefing every hour. “The cyclist who was hit continued to cycle. We do have reports of burglaries, which is good to keep an eye on. The hospitals are only for essential care. And a temporary shelter may open at 7 p.m., but I will know that at the next briefing.”
Marleen Lubberdink (left), a Red Cross volunteer and a municipal colleague, pass on emergency notifications to the fire brigade and city hall during the exercise.
mona van den Berg
As a civil servant at the municipality, she is on public care duty and arranges shelter for people after a fire, for example. The boas inform her that it is quiet in the neighborhood. They do note that they “normally do everything with Google Maps. Actually, we need maps.”
I have to guide people to a shelter, but I can’t tell them exactly how to walk
That was also one of Lubberdink’s conclusions: “I have to guide people to a shelter, but I cannot tell them exactly how to walk, let alone whether they can easily find it in the dark.” Together with her colleague from the Red Cross, she maintains contact with the fire brigade and city hall via walkie-talkie and satellite telephone. They also note that the reporting forms could be shorter. Every report must be written down by hand – after all, computers don’t work either.
Emergency transmitter
This is what exercise leaders Anco de Rooij from the municipality and Bram Jacobs from the VRU do. “We try and see what we come across,” says Jacobs. De Rooij: “What we are testing now, and later in the other safety regions, should form a template for all municipalities. Of course with local space. What I practice here in the Ondiep district may be different in the Overvecht district.”
Neighbors are curious and visit the emergency support point during the exercise.
mona van den Berg
In the meantime, real local residents are also coming in. Four neighbors – “all over 65” – heard about the crisis exercise and started talking to a municipal official about the FM frequency of the disaster channel. “It’s already taped to the bedside table,” says one of them. Her neighbor: “But then you need a light if it is too dark to read it.” The official asks if they have any other good tips for the neighborhood. These are stuck on a large sheet of paper with post-its. The third neighbor says that she has crispbread at home: “It keeps well for a long time.”
The actors, volunteers from the Red Cross, continue to enter from the hallway. With reports about a meter cupboard fire, an aggressive dog. Upstairs in the old school building, Ron Lambinon, former ambulance nurse, and Jan Westerbeek, retired army liaison officer, sit behind their transmitting equipment.
They are from Dares, the Dutch Amateur Radio Emergency Service. If the power goes out and so does the communication between the emergency services, the radio amateurs may be the ones who can still transmit. Dares has four hundred members, which also has a license from the Telecom Agency. “I have a message for you. Are you ready?” “Yes,” says Lambinon. “Is the reception location already in use? Question mark.”
The exercise takes a few hours. A school will catch fire, a baby will get locked in a car and a fight will break out.
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