Image: (Gahleitner)
Insecure citizens and communities who want advice characterize the image of the past civil protection year. In the Rohrbach district alone, 1,450 citizens learned about self-protection and personal provision in eleven lectures. The civil protection officers are always concerned with dispelling fears and not fomenting them. “Anyone who knows how to make their home crisis-proof can sleep peacefully,” says Valentin Pühringer, head of the safety and traffic department at the Rohrbach district authority and civil defense district manager. For a few days now, civil protection in Upper Austria has also had a new managing director: Christian Kloibhofer from Mönchdorf (Freistadt district) – so two people from the Mühlviertel are working hand in hand here. “Christian Kloibhofer has been an important contact person in the regional civil protection association for years, and it is also him who was responsible for developing the blackout emergency plan for the municipalities on behalf of the state of Upper Austria last year,” says Valentin Pühringer, pleased about the even closer plan in the future Cooperation. The blackout emergency plan has already been issued to the communities. The Upper Austrian civil defense has thus succeeded in creating a comprehensive work with which those responsible for the community can develop an alarm and action plan based on the respective local events, which enables rapid and effective work in the crisis team in an emergency at regional level. The creation of emergency plans is already well underway in the individual communities, with local associations and institutions also being involved.
Prepare without panic
Christian Kloibhofer takes over the civil defense at a time when the work on the subject of blackouts, one of the main focal points of the association, has changed. “Ten years ago we still had to raise awareness of what a blackout actually is, today it’s about telling the population that they have to take precautions without panic. Disasters must not catch us unprepared. The necessary precautions are well informed and with simple means easy to implement in relation to crisis scenarios.”
Even though the blackout was the dominant theme last year, civil defense work is more diverse. This also includes provisions for a nuclear incident and self-protection measures in the event of storms and other natural disasters. “Of course, the topic of radiation protection, triggered by the Ukraine war, played a greater role again last year – this has always been a priority of civil protection,” explains Kloibhofer. There are a large number of major catastrophic events, but it does not always have to be the huge catastrophes for which emergency preparedness is worthwhile. Prevention is also important for the multitude of possible everyday accidents. In principle, if citizens make provisions for major events, they are also better prepared for minor emergencies.
Civil protection starts with children
Civil protection work is as diverse as the emergency situations that can hit you. As the new managing director, Kloibhofer would like to continue proven prestige projects and develop new ideas: “We are in the middle of preparations for what is now the 22nd Civil Protection Child Safety Olympics for the third and fourth grades of elementary school and we are really looking forward to it again,” says Kloibhofer.
“Twelve classes from our district took part in the past year and are now true safety experts,” says Valentin Pühringer happily. The civil protection officers in the communities are a valuable help in numerous civil protection projects. For example, they check how sustainably the children’s high-visibility vests that are handed out at the start of school are worn. In the Rohrbach district, 17 classes were checked.
Unfortunately, the somewhat sobering result: only 43.8 percent of the students wore safety vests. “Here, above all, adults are called upon to remind their children to wear safety vests,” said Valentin Pühringer, district head of civil protection, to parents.
Source: Nachrichten
