In the basement of the Amfi Verdal shopping center is the China Palace restaurant. If you look closely, you can make out a spotlight in the black-painted ceiling of the restaurant. Because this restaurant has also functioned as a nightclub once upon a time. In addition to the fact that there is a shelter. But this is not one of the 600 public shelters that the Directorate for Social Security and Preparedness (DSB) shows in its overview. This is a private shelter – meant for those staying at the shopping center in Verdal. DSB’s official overview shows only a fraction of the shelters we have available in Norway. Photo: Skjermdump / dsb.no Check your municipality Until now, we as citizens have not been told where all the 19,000 private shelters in Norway are located – or the capacity of each one of them. But now news can present a general overview of how the coverage rate is in all the municipalities in the country. The overview includes both public and private shelters. Municipalities with the highest degree of coverage Table one of oneNordkapp136%Vardø129%Røyrvik – Raarvihke103%Sør-Varanger88%Vadsø86% Therefore the addresses are secret But you will not know the exact address. Namely, the authorities will continue to keep it a secret. – Some of these rooms are located, for example, in companies and businesses that could have an important function in a possible security policy crisis and war. This is according to the head of the Civil Defense, Øistein Knudsen jr. The Civil Defense is part of DSB, with responsibility for the overview of shelters. – Therefore, we want the owners of the rooms themselves to make a decision – after a risk assessment of possible negative consequences – if they want to post addresses publicly available. Chief of the Civil Defense, Øistein Knudsen jr. Photo: Stian Olberg / DSB The shelters at schools are private The public shelters are meant for everyone. You can seek these out when the alarm goes off. But it doesn’t work that way for the private sector. The private shelters are only for those staying where the shelter is. Office buildings, schools, nurseries, housing associations, companies, shops or hotels are examples of private shelters. These rooms are built for the number of people staying in the building. It is not desired that those who do not belong to the building should seek out private shelters. Many municipalities lack shelters According to DSB, there are around 50 municipalities that do not have shelters. One of these is Aure municipality in Møre og Romsdal. But when news contacted the municipality, they were able to tell that this was not true. – We have three shelters that we use for other things on a daily basis, but which can quickly be converted into shelters, says the mayor of Aure, Hanne-Berit Brekken (Ap). Aure municipality houses, among other things, the gas terminal at Tjelbergodden – which the Norwegian Armed Forces have started patrolling after gas pipelines were blown up in the Baltic Sea a month ago. Mayor of Aure municipality, Hanne-Berit Brekken (Ap), in one of the municipality’s shelters. This is a private shelter. Photo: Marius André Jenssen Stenberg / news – About the safety of the population Why the three shelters are not in the DSB’s overview, the mayor does not know. She thinks it is stupid that DSB does not have a full overview. – I think that’s a shame. It is about the residents’ safety. Should something happen, if we need shelter, then it says something to my residents when it says that we don’t have it, when the fact is that we actually have three rooms. So I think it’s stupid. The head of the Civil Defense himself admits that the overview they have is too bad. – That overview can definitely be better, says Øistein Knudsen jr. According to Knudsen jr. there has been little focus on shelters in the last twenty years, but that this is something they are now working to get a better overview of. What if the war comes on a Sunday? But what do we do if the war comes at the weekend – when you and I are not at work or school. Where should we seek shelter then? We will be notified of that, says the Norwegian Civil Defense. – If the governing authorities want the shelter to be put into use, we will go out with information about this, says Knudsen jr. He points out that it is important to seek information on public websites or in the media on the day it may be relevant to use a shelter. – Don’t run to a shelter in the first place, it can be just as effective to seek refuge where you are. If shelters are to be used, we will give notice of this. According to DBS, only 135 out of 356 municipalities have public shelters. Although we have not had a direct need to seek out shelters since the Second World War, there is clearly a need for them. That is the conclusion of the Norwegian Defense Research Institute (FFI) in a report from 2016. Hi! Do you have any tips regarding preparedness in Norway, or other topics? Please contact.
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See an overview showing the degree of coverage and shelters in your municipality – news Møre og Romsdal – Local news, TV and radio
