One of two knows what the civil defense warning signal means

Civil defense.Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix

On Wednesday at 12 noon, the typhoons will howl again. Only half the population knows what Civil Defence’s  tests signals mean , a new study shows.

The Notification equipment is tested twice a year, and in recent years it is the signal «important message – listen to radio” that has been ‘broadcast’.

This is recognized by honking in series of three, followed by a one-minute silence between the series.
– The signal means in practice “search information”. The important thing is not how you seek information in acute danger, but that you actually do it, said civil defense chief Jon Birger Berntsen.

According to a survey that  Fact Market has performed for the  Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning, 49 percent of the population know that this signal means to search for information in radio, television, social media or elsewhere.

27 percent of those surveyed responded that the signal means “flight alert”. 9 percent think it means “clear”, while 15 percent answered “do not know”.

Around 1.250 notification systems in Norway are tested annually at 12 noon on the second Wednesday in January and June, and the signal can be heard by over half the population.

Previously they alternated between sending warning signals for “important message – listen to radio”, “alert” and “the danger is over,” but now it is only the former that is used in the test.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

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