An Ifop poll published on Friday indicates that a majority of French people do not know what to do in the event of a natural or industrial disaster, and would like to be better informed.
They howl every first Wednesday of the month, at noon … And the French, who nevertheless know this noise by heart, do not know for the most part what it is for. According to an Ifop survey * published on Friday, before the National Assises on Natural Risks which will be held on December 2 and 3 in Bordeaux, only 22% of those questioned claim to know the instructions relating to the triggering of the national alert signal. “Lock in or stay at home” (34%), “seal doors and windows” (19%), “turn on the radio and listen to information messages” (13%) … but also “trigger a alarm or siren ”(26%), or even“ take iodine tablets ”(4%): the individuals surveyed have a very vague interpretation of what this signal means. The majority of them also consider themselves poorly informed about the natural (63%) and industrial (75%) risks to which they are exposed.
The 4,300 sirens of the national alert network (RNA) of metropolitan France are intended to alert the population in the event of immediate danger. the interior ministry specifies on its website that “this network, inherited from the Second World War, originally designed to alert populations of an aerial threat (classic or nuclear bombardment), can be used to deal with the rise in technological or natural risks without ignoring military or terrorist threats ”. The alert can be supplemented by other devices such as sirens or loudspeakers mounted on vehicles, useful in isolated areas, adds the ministry’s website.
The decree of October 12, 2005 stipulates that the national warning signal is “triggered by decision of the Prime Minister, the prefects of the department and in Paris of the prefect of police or mayors who immediately inform the prefect of the department”. The sirens then emit a modulated signal, rising and falling, composed of three sequences of one minute 41 seconds, separated by a silence of five seconds. A signal which cannot therefore be confused with that of a test of only one minute, broadcast at noon on the first Wednesday of each month.
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Instructions to follow, behaviors to avoid
In the event of an alert, it is recommended by the Interior to “go to a closed room without delay, preferably without a window, if possible carefully blocking openings (slots, doors, vents, chimneys, etc.), to stop air conditioning, heating and ventilation, and to listen to the radio: France Inter, France Info or local radios ”. On the other hand, you should not “stay in a vehicle”, “pick up your children from school”, “telephone” (networks must remain available for help), “stay near the windows”, “turn on any flame ”,“ or leave the shelter without instructions from the authorities ”. Schoolchildren are taken care of by the school.
Today, this warning system is obsolete, and no longer meets the requirements of current population basins. A modernization program has therefore been launched in recent years for the national alert network, renamed the population alert and information system (SAIP). In the future, sirens will be supported in particular by TV and radio messages, but also SMS and emails directly to individuals. The Minister of the Interior may, for his part, order a national alert via the Operational Center for Interministerial Crisis Management (Cogic) and the sirens may be triggered by satellite. A system which should be fully operational in the years to come.
* The survey was carried out on a sample of 1,001 people, representative of the French population aged 18 and over, by internet between 13 and 15 November 2013.
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