“Civil Protection alert test of the Generalitat of Catalonia. It’s a drill. Do not call 112. In a real emergency you would receive instructions to protect yourself”, this is the message that Civil Protection this Thursday began to send to the four million mobile phones that were operational in a good part of the province of Barcelona.
Between 10:00 and 13:00, all people with a mobile phone who are – even if passing through in the car or on board public transport – in the regions of Barcelonès, Vallès Occidental, Vallès Oriental, Maresme or Baix Llobregat have received or will receive a Civil Protection alert on your mobile phone. The acoustic signal, accompanied by a message, is a simulation with which the Generalitat wants to carry out tests to see if this alarm system would work in the event of a real emergency.
The Generalitat faces the greatest challenge in terms of the alarm system since it has carried out other drills of this type in other parts of Catalonia, but they have never directed these messages en masse to so many people: more than five million people.
Civil Protection has scheduled the alert in the Barcelona area at different times. At 10:00 the mobile phones in Vallès Oriental, Maresme, Sant Adrià del Besòs, Badalona and Santa Coloma de Gramenet received the notice. At 11.00 the mobiles from Barcelona, at 12.00 those from Vallès Occidental and at 13.00 those from Baix Llobregat and l’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
The first alarms have correctly reached the cell phones, which at 10:00 have begun to ring with an irritable alarm. “What a scare,” is one of the most repeated expressions on terraces, shops and social networks among those who did not know that they were going to receive the alert and, also, those who, knowing it, have not known how to code in seconds what it was due to. that thunderous alarm. Janet is from Bolivia and this Thursday morning she was working cleaning a staircase in the Barcelona neighborhood of Poblenou. “What is this? What is happening?” She became alarmed without understanding why her cell phone was emitting that noise accompanied by a message from Civil Protection. She needed the help of a neighbor to understand that it was a simple drill. “They don’t do this in my country,” she concluded. On the terraces of La Rambla de Poblenou the whistle has become the anecdote of several conversations.
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The challenge that Civil Protection has imposed on itself with this alarm is such that even the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, published a video on Wednesday reporting on the peculiarities of the sound message and how it would be received on mobile phones. The text message alerting you about the test is accompanied by a shrill sound and a vibration that does not end until the user presses to accept. The message, depending on the phone and the company, has been headed with the title: “presidential alert” or “civil protection alert.” Furthermore, according to the Generalitat, it has been sent in Catalan, Spanish and English. Cell phones that were turned off or in airplane mode were the only ones that did not receive the notice.
The simulation aims not only to test the effectiveness of the message, but also to familiarize the civilian population with this emergency communication mechanism that will be used to give instructions in the event of chemical accidents or floods. The system for sending mass messages has already been used in several emergencies in areas where it is enabled, such as in the recent floods in Alcanar (Tarragona.
This has been the fourth test of this type carried out by Civil Protection in Catalonia. The first was held on February 28 in Lleida, Alt Pirineu i Aran, the second was on April 12 in the regions of Tarragona. It was a real disaster since only 37.5% of potential recipients received the message. The test was so calamitous that the Generalitat chose to repeat it on June 13. On April 27, it was carried out in the central regions and Girona, reaching the majority of the population.
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