In the event of war, shelters must provide protection for the population from shrapnel, explosions, pressure waves and the collapse of the buildings above them. The majority also protect against dangerous gases.
Many shelters will also be able to reduce the amount of radioactive radiation a person is exposed to in the event of nuclear explosions.
Tor Andre Jonsen (Frp), a representative of the Norwegian Parliament, who is a member of the Justice Committee, believes that the situation with shelter capacity in Norway is very bad.
Also read: An underground city that will protect the Finns
Figures from the civil defense It appears that there is room for less than half of Norway’s population in shelters today. The vast majority of shelters today are also private shelters. The locations of private shelters are also hidden for security reasons.
Johnson has put up a written question It is up to Minister for Justice and Emergency Preparedness Emily Inger Mehl (Sp) to ask whether the minister can ensure that more public shelters are created.
Does not give any guarantees
Mehl makes no warranties in his writings In response to ParliamentIt states that the government is evaluating how to improve protection measures and shelters, and that this is being followed up in dialogue with the Directorate for Social Security and Preparedness (DSB).
– There are two key words that describe the main problem. Johnson tells Nettavisen his lack of action and naivety.
– It’s now almost a year since the invasion of Ukraine, and the answer from Mehl is that work is underway in 2023 to assess plans for shelters. Then it could quickly go a year before anything else happens. This is too bad as it relates to the safety of Norwegian citizens across the country. We don’t have confidence that the government will continue to act, so we put forward a representative proposal as early as spring 2022, he says.
In April last year – about two months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine – the Progress Party presented a representative proposal That the government develop a plan to further develop public shelters. Nevertheless, the motion was voted on in Parliament, as well as by the two government parties Ap and Sp.
Also read: Heavy Weapons Can Increase Nuclear Threat: – The cup may be overflowing
Public and private shelters
What are public shelters?
* Public shelters for all residents of the respective area. The municipality owns these rooms and is responsible for maintenance, while the civil defense is responsible for operation and preparation in the event of an emergency. This kind of shelter is mainly built in large cities and towns to provide protection for people who are concentrated outdoors in city centers, traffic areas, and the like.
* Public shelters can be, for example, larger mountain facilities and rooms built in connection with public buildings, gyms and parking facilities. The rooms are marked with signs outside. There are approximately 600 public venues with 300,000 seats in Norway. There are no public shelters in all municipalities. Municipalities are responsible for informing citizens of the location of public shelters. See public shelters in a map on this page (Click on “Subject Layer”, open the menu under “Civil Defense” and select “Public Shelters”).
What are private shelters?
* Private shelters for people residing on the property or on the premises. Examples of private shelters are office buildings, schools, kindergartens, housing associations, businesses, shops and hotels. The size of private shelters is adapted to the number of people who normally reside on the property. It is therefore not desirable for others who reside outside the property to apply for coverage there. Private shelters were built at the builder’s expense.
* The building owner is responsible for keeping the room in peace and for preparing and operating the room in case of an emergency. There must be a shelter sign inside the building. There are approximately 19,000 private shelters with approximately 2.2 million spaces. Lists of private shelters are issued only to authorities with official needs and are marked with an exclusion mark for the public cf. Common Law § 21.
Who has an overview of all private shelters?
* Civil Defense, which is part of the DSB, has overall responsibility for lists of shelters in municipalities in Norway. Municipalities must also have an overview in accordance with Clauses 14 and 15 of the Civil Protection Law, and municipalities can obtain lists from the DSB with the location of all shelters in the municipality.
* The list will be marked as excluded from publication in accordance with Section 21 of the Public Relations Act, for reasons of national protection. The municipality can publish information about its shelters with the location after the municipality has made a concrete risk assessment.
Source: Civil Defense
An area for 2.5 million Norwegians
The country’s private and public shelters have the capacity to accommodate 2.5 million of Norway’s population of 5.5 million. In 1998, the Norwegian Parliament adopted a temporary moratorium on the development of new shelters in Norway.
Johnson believes it is extremely serious that the government has not taken the necessary measures to initiate the development of several new public shelters in order to ensure adequate national shelter capacity.
The Minister of Justice and the government do not seem to take seriously the serious situation we face in the war in Europe. The main task is to ensure the safety of Norwegian citizens. This is the first priority. Now we have a war in Europe, and we know things are bad with the Norwegian shelters. He stresses that we do not even have shelters for the entire population.
The FRP has had as many as five justice ministers at the time since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 (from 2014 to 2020).
– Why weren’t more public shelters built in Norway during all the years that the FRP was Minister in charge of civic preparedness?
– The situation changed dramatically after Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. After all, what happened and no one thought would happen that there would be a new war in Europe. There has always been political tension between Russia and the West, and there is certainly a lot that could have been done differently. But now we’re where we’re at, Johnson says, and we need to act accordingly.
Read also: Stoltenberg: – Putin wants to control all of Ukraine
To date, there are approximately 600 public shelters in Norway with a capacity of 300,000 people. In addition, there are just over 19,000 private shelters with a capacity of 2.2 million people. Private shelters can be shelters in office buildings, schools, kindergartens, housing associations, companies, shops and hotels.
These shelters are calculated and dimensioned for the number of people residing on the property or in the building.
– Processing the DSB report in the Ministry
At the end of last year, the Ministry of Justice received a DSB report that assesses and assesses the standards for civil protection measures. Mehl is writing to the Norwegian Parliament that work is under way to assess plans for measures, and that this is being pursued in a management dialogue with DBS.
Netavisn asked the Ministry of Justice several questions about shelters, including what Minister Mehl means by assessments related to shelter improvement “which are being pursued in an administrative dialogue with the DSB”.
Nettavisen also asked if the DSB had put forward any specific proposals as to how many new shelters would be necessary to secure the entire population of Norway, and whether, if any, there was a cost estimate for this.
– The Ministry of Justice and Emergency Preparedness received the report from the Directorate of Community Security and Emergency Preparedness (DSB) on December 21, 2022. The report is now being processed at the Ministry. In the award letter for 2023, DSB was tasked with continuing to work with civil protection measures, so the report will be the basis for what is being worked on further, communications consultant Andreas Bondevik wrote in an email to Nettavisen.
Norway can afford many new shelters
Calculations show that today’s shelter development, carried out from 1948 to 1998, cost about NOK 50 billion. The Norwegian Civil Defense says it would cost billions to equip all shelters in Norway. Johnson believes Norway should nevertheless take the advice in terms of upgrading and developing more shelters.
– I get a little frustrated with the focus on economics when it comes to life and health. If there are any countries in the world that can build more shelters, says Johnson, it is Norway.
Read also: Medvedev rages against Davos and threatens nuclear weapons
Some of the threats are real
Since the outbreak of the war, Russia has repeatedly made vicious threats against Western involvement in the Ukraine war. The nuclear threat recurs regularly throughout the war.
Last week, warmonger Dmitry Medvedev, former president and now deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, repeated threats to use nuclear weapons if Russia lost the war.
On Sunday, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin issued similar threats, warning Western politicians that Western arms supplies could lead to a “global tragedy”.
On Wednesday of this week, it also became clear that several NATO countries, including Norway, would supply heavy tanks to Ukraine, which Russia is referring to as direct involvement in the conflict.
Johnson believes that threats from Russia should be taken seriously.
– I have worked and lived for 17 years both in Ukraine and in Russia. I have a Ukrainian ex-wife. The difference between Russian and Norwegian politicians, says Johnson, is that Russian politicians may actually be willing to do what they say, even if it is something as absurd as threatening to use nuclear weapons.
– It may be difficult for Norwegian politicians to understand this. Some of these threats are hollow, but some are real. He says I am worried.
“Explorer. Unapologetic entrepreneur. Alcohol fanatic. Certified writer. Wannabe tv evangelist. Twitter fanatic. Student. Web scholar. Travel buff.”
