What happens if the power goes out for days and the mobile network no longer works? Residents, volunteers and emergency services practiced this scenario in Westerveld on Tuesday evening.
An emergency support point was set up in the village hall of Wilhelminaoord where residents could go with requests for help and emergencies.
The village halls in Wilhelminaoord and Wapserveen and the fire station in Vledder kept in touch during the exercise via walkie-talkies that work without transmission towers, the MeshCore messaging system and the radio amateurs of DARES.
When a practice report comes in of a baby with breathing problems, it turns out to be a bit of a search. “We are alerted while we are still setting up, so the notification has to be turned off in a different way,” says one of the radio amateurs.
Another comes up with a solution: “I’ll put a temporary antenna on the car with a so-called magnetic base. The large antenna is much better, but we’re going to try this.”
“Everyone received the ‘Think Forward’ booklet in October. It states that in the event of a power outage you can go to an emergency support point,” says Carolijn Boonstra, emergency infrastructure project leader at the Drenthe Safety Region. With the exercise, Boonstra hopes to find out how such a support point can best function in practice. “We’re just going to try it out and hopefully we’ll learn a lot from it.”
Residents can go to an emergency support point with questions, but also to report emergencies. These reports are then passed on to the emergency services. “Then we have to communicate with each other in a different way,” says Boonstra. “That’s why we use walkie-talkies and the MeshCore messaging system.”
At the end of the evening, satisfaction prevails with practice leader Jan van der Ploeg. “We have received all reports and have been able to pass them on.” However, not everything went smoothly. The MeshCore messaging system failed. “We couldn’t get it in the air.”
The exercise in Westerveld was the first test of an emergency support point in Drenthe. After an extensive evaluation, similar exercises should also follow in other municipalities.