Feldbach is considered the city in Austria best prepared for the blackout. And it owes it to its mayor Josef Ober who, several years ago, decided to invest and make his fellow citizens aware of this disaster scenario. A process that has not always been well understood. “At first we weren’t taken seriously. Then in March 2020, with the first lockdown, awareness jumped. Something unusual happened, and people realized that we weren’t prepared for this”explains the city councilor to the magazine “We, the Europeans” (replay).
“The question is not whether it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen, but we don’t know when, and I don’t know how society will react, he specifies. We have to become more resilient so that the system does not collapse.” Public order is one of the major risks in the event of a blackout. How to manage an unprepared population, which would quickly find itself short of food? In a recent article, the Austrian press revealed that the supermarket chain Spar has even begun to train its staff in the management of possible looting, but the company does not communicate on the subject…
Ensure the continuity of police and fire services
Josef Gsöls, the deputy mayor in charge of the blackout and security, dealt with this issue of the unrest because he is also a policeman: “During a blackout, supermarkets will make sure to sell all perishable food. Without electricity, there are indeed no checkouts or cooling system, so instead of products spoiling , we distribute them. If the population is prepared, informed, we can avoid panic.” And to ensure the continuity of police and fire services, it’s at the fire station that it’s happening. Under the orders of Commander Peter Baptist, the emergency center would become the heart of the protection of the population in the event of a prolonged outage throughout the urban area of Feldbach.
“If there is a power outage, the generator starts up after three minutes, he said. Batteries ensure the power supply during these three minutes, so this plant is permanently powered. We are not in the business of providing emergency power supply, we cannot do that. We have generators in our vehicles but they are all used for interventions. We need to ensure the safety of the inhabitants and the fire protection, that we bring help… not electricity.”
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