Watch out for the Russian's attack

Did you get a text message last Monday? I did. Even two! And I don’t mean a normal, private text message, but the one testing the Dutch warning system NL-Alert. The government tested the system nationally last Monday at noon. The text messages are supposed to warn the citizens in case of big disasters.

These messages however are not the only form of the warning system. On every first Monday of a month at 12.00 you can hear an alarm going on in every single city in the Netherlands. The first time I heard it, I was just cycling to school for my NT2 course. Now I kind a wonder how could I not notice these alarms for the first half a year of my stay in this country… But back to the case: The lessons were held at the university, so I was already around a student campus, when I heard it.

- Damn students… They messed up again - I thought.

The whole experience didn’t have any special significance to me, nor caused any suspicions, so I quickly forgot about it. At least till the next times same thing happened. Could it be, that the Dutch students are so problematic? It all came out clear, when I heard the alarm during our casual stroll with my mother-in-law. She explained me the purpose of these alarms.

- They are testing them every first Monday of a month at noon. If we’d hear it on some other day or other time, we should quickly go and hide in a shelter.

- And where is actually the closest shelter? - I asked.

- I have no idea - she laughed.

Maurice had also a great theory about these alarms. According to him they were supposed to warn us about… a Russian aircraft raid! Whaaaat? I think it’s a different decade now, isn’t it? However the Luchtalarm was indeed created already during the Cold War. It would warn Dutch citizens in case of war or nuclear explosion. Nowadays it’s used for different kinds of danger and cataclysms. If you’d hear it (except the Monday’s testing) you should quickly go home, close the doors and windows and listen to radio or TV for more information. But does anyone actually remember about that or pay any attention?

And how did this last NT-Alert attempt go? Well, not so perfect. Many people didn’t get ant message (like for example Maurice), while others got even more than one. I got two, so our household balance was fine :D Seems like the Dutch government knows how’s in charge of a crisis management in our house ;)