Linas Jegelevičius
Sharp alarming beeps on your cell phone while in Lithuania will likely make you uneasy – what is going on?
No doubt, to some, high-pitched warning signals followed with written messages about an emergency can be pesky and irritating, as they can come out of the blue.
On several occasions, the system failed when it had to get the job done.
Like, for example, at the end of July, when it was silent with a major storm barrelling the country.
Visibly distraught then, the Minister of the Interior, Agnė Bilotaitė, called the head of the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD), Saulius Greičius, on the carpet to explain why the system failed.
“The situation, when residents are not warned about possible dangerous meteorological phenomena, cannot happen again. In this case, we are not only talking about destroyed property, but also about people’s health or even life”, A. Bilotaitė scolded PAGD chief.
In other case, in March in Gargždai, a town in the Klaipėda region, an unauthorized siren activation occurred on the post office building due to a malfunction of the control unit. The residents’ warning siren worked for three minutes and then turned off, but the locals were disturbed and alarmed. Since the post office building was scheduled to be demolished, it was decided to dismantle the control unit and the siren.
The Interior Ministry does not deny malfunctions of the warning system,
but assured BNN that, in recent years, the population warning system has been rapidly expanded and modernized.
According to the ministry, there are currently 944 warning sirens operating in the country, which can be used to warn 56.8% of Lithuanian residents.
“Still the outreach is insufficient. All residents need to be warned of something grave ahead or around,” says Mykolas Kazlauskas, a resident of Alytus, a town in southern Lithuania.
As part of the efforts to improve the system, an additional 197 sirens were purchased from the program funded by Norway and their installation is being completed in 17 municipalities located closest to the Belarusian nuclear power plant, the ministry said.
The goal is for the network of warning sirens to reach 75% Lithuanian residents, the ministry emphasized.
Specifically, the new warning sirens are being installed or have already been installed in the municipalities of Anykščiai, Elektrėnai, Ignalina, Kaišiadorių, Molėtai, Šalčininkai, Širvintos, Švenčionys, Trakai, Ukmergė, Utena, Varėna, Vilnius, Visaginas districts and in the city of Vilnius.
These warning sirens will be controlled not only centrally, but also from municipalities. They can emit not only a warning sound signal, but also a voice warning signal with short warning information.
According to the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Crisis Management and Civil Protection, the actions of all institutions are coordinated at the government level by the National Crisis Management Center (NKVC).
NKVC organizes the sending of short warning messages about the impending danger to the residents’ mobile phones, and the sending is carried out by PAGD.
Vida Šmigelskienė, Head of the Communication Department of the Fire Protection and Rescue Department (PAGD), told BNN that
the Department sent 20 short warning messages to residents so far this year.
Of them, seven were due to strong gusts, one related to a major traffic jam, six warned of major fire in the surroundings, five warned of other bad meteorological conditions.
“The system is seen as an effective tool for warning residents,” said the PAGD representative.
According to her, some residents may not receive messages if the cellular broadcast function is turned off on their phones.
“To receive notifications, this function should be activated,” V. Šmigelskienė added.
She said that in 2023 during the system check, one of the three mobile operator networks did not broadcast messages.
“The renovation and maintenance work of the communication operators’ infrastructure had an impact on how the warning system works. It is important that these works are coordinated and those performing system maintenance and infrastructure maintenance work are aware of them,” she said.
However, aren’t such warning messages sometimes redundant or inaccurate?
Šmigelskienė agrees that messages can sometimes be inaccurate when the warning initiator, i.e. responsible authority, does not accurately predict the dangerous event.
“For example, a dangerous phenomenon predicted by the hydrometeorological service does not occur or is not strong enough to cause much damage, which is why the public has a contradictory assessment of the warning,” she said.
Gytis Valaika, Chief Specialist of Communication and International Cooperation Division of the Meteorological Centre, told BNN that “there are no limits to perfection” in modernizing the emergency warning system.
“There is always and will be something to improve…
The content communicated in the message and its nature are also important, so that the warning about potential risks is understandable to all residents. We positively assess the fact that these issues have been discussed recently and that everyone is interested in a system that works as efficiently as possible,” he said.
Gintarė Plungienė, a specialist in the Public Relations and Cooperation Department of the Klaipėda District Municipality Administration, told BNN that, currently, there are eight operating sirens in the Klaipėda district. It is planned to purchase six more sirens.
“The municipality of Klaipėda district is satisfied with the operation of this system and there have been no problems or disturbances,” G. Plungienė emphasized, adding: “We propose to centralize the activation of sirens throughout Lithuania, because currently, in our district, six sirens are activated at the same time by the municipal employee responsible for civil safety, the other two are activated by two companies in our district, “Neo group” and “Mida”.