Swiss Ad for national alarm test | Hacker News Reader

Swiss Ad for national alarm test

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3 pointsrspoerri6 comments

Every year, on the first Wednesday in February, all sirens across Switzerland are tested. The public is notified beforehand through announcements on the radio, on TV and in the press. The general public is not required to respond in a particular way or take protective measures, but simply requested in advance to excuse the inconvenience caused by the noise of the sirens.

https://www.babs.admin.ch/en/alarm/test.html

I think the ad is very funny, also it might be of interest to other people.

> The general public is not required to respond in a particular way or take protective measures

So what to do when the sirens sound and it's not a test?

When I was a kid, one afternoon we heard a siren go off in the nearby village. What do you do? Well keep doing what you've been doing before. Because it's just a test certainly. Then a voice came on: "This is not a test, not a test." So what did I do then? Scan the houses. And sure enough, there was smoke billowing from a skylight.

If I'd been one of the municipal firefighters, I'd run home to grab my gear. Likely my training would have stressed to start running at the first sounding of the siren!

Nowadays, if a siren went off at another time of the day, I would leave the building to make sure it wasn't mine being on fire. Maybe that's when I'd get swept away by a flood because I can't distinguish the signals.

If its not a test you should watch or listen to national tv / radio. In case of water alert and if you are on low ground i‘d seek high ground first. (Not sure about the official recommendation with the second)

Barely anyone would notice.

Great spot; I like the sheep ;-)

And the spot also shows very vividly how our administration works. The counter displayed in the middle shows how the budget flows through, in millions of CHF.

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