A ’shelter’ from the storm

June 3, 2009 - 1:15 PM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life, War 

Well, our IDF Home Front Command nationwide air raid siren that marked the public’s participation in the weeklong Operation Turning Point 3 war preparation exercises took place yesterday.

While most people at work dutifully filed into designated rooms or shelters as the wailing siren sounded at 11 am, those citizens on the street or in their cars pretty much went about their business as usual. The army and police announced that they were satisfied with the response.

At our office, one of our interns, Ben, recorded the event in cinema verite style (I have a cameo as one of those who ‘oops’ arrived a few seconds after the allotted three minutes to enter the shelter).

We all thought we did well, until I got back to the office and found my assistant in her room asking if I knew when the siren was going to go off. Oh well, I’m sure it won’t be the last test – real or simulated – that we’re going to have.

YouTube Preview Image

Tags: , , ,

Is this a drill?

May 27, 2009 - 1:54 PM by Nicky · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, War 

I don’t know whether to be relieved or worried by the government’s decision to hold a large-scale nationwide drill next Tuesday. Relieved, because the government is clearly preparing us all for missile attacks, which is very responsible and forward thinking; and worried, well because the government is clearly preparing us all for missile attacks.

Sound the alarm and make for a shelter

Sound the alarm and make for a shelter

With the war of words between Israel and Iran heating up, it’s hard not to feel a little jumpy even when you’re an optimistic sort.

The government’s idea is to hold a nationwide civil defense exercise, called Turning Point 3 (I presume we’ve already had Turning Point 1 and 2). During the exercise sirens will go off across the country. And this time, instead of ignoring them, the entire population will have to head for the nearest shelter or protected site.

For my kids it’s a trip to a rather dank and smelly underground shelter at the school. For my husband it’s going to be interesting since the shelters in his high-rise office block are rented out for storage. For me, well with no one around to notice, it’s probably not worth making the effort to amble down the stairs to my son’s bedroom cum shelter. Even though it’s got wireless Internet.

In a meeting at the Knesset, Dep. Defense Minister Matan Vilnai said the exercise was based on the presumption of a missile assault from three or four directions, some with unconventional weapons, synchronized with large-scale terrorist attacks up and down the country.

This, he stressed, was no fantastic scenario made up by Hollywood scriptwriters, but a highly credible development in the event of war. I can’t help but wonder what drill they have planned for us in the event of a nuclear strike.

My village started preparing for the drill last week, when the sirens suddenly went off early in the morning. No one seemed particularly concerned, however, and just went about their business as normal. Finally someone raised their head and said: “Do you think that’s a drill?”

Anyway, good to know we’re prepared. Gas masks to be handed out later this year. Ah, the good life.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

False alarm in Jerusalem

January 15, 2009 - 9:59 AM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, War 

Can someone get these other girls behind me to stop crying?

Can someone get these other girls behind me to stop crying?

Until Day 19 of Operation Cast Lead, those of us living in the Jerusalem area had been immune to Hamas rocket attack. While we’ve been supporting our brethren in the South – and let’s not forget Katyushot are still landing in the North on occasion – we central folks haven’t had to worry about running for cover when a warning siren suddenly goes off.

Until yesterday, that is.

Just before 1 pm, that high-low frequency, nuclear-bomb-coming-in siren went off around Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh. Even level-headed people might have been jolted upright with a moment’s panic going through their system – Kassams and Grads fired from Gaza can’t reach here, can they?

I initially thought the noise emanated from actual ambulance or police car sirens and surmised there must be a major accident somewhere, or a regular, old fashioned terror attack/suicide bombing that we all too frequently encountered in the earlier part of the decade.

I walked out onto my porch in Ma’aleh Adumim, and realized that it was a warning siren, and could see pupils in the playground of the junior high school in my view’s range running into the building.

Ah, an excercise. Good deal, I thought, Let’s keep everyone on their toes, remembering the nuclear bomb drills we used to participate in the US growing up in Colds War era. Still, just to be sure, I turned on the 1 pm news on the radio.

Turns out it wasn’t a planned drill, but an alarm malfunction that caused the sirens to go off. Evidently Magen David Adom and the Jerusalem Municipality hotline received hundreds of calls from panicked citizens, but my eight-year-old son wasn’t one of them. When he returned home from school later in the day, he recounted his ‘alarming’ experience.

“I was just about to go into the bathroom, and we all had to hurry back to our class and then go into the big bomb shelter next to the school’s library. The kids were running around and really excited, and some thought it was a real attack. But I knew it wasn’t because I saw that the teachers were calm,” he recounted. “When we were waiting inside the shelter, some of the girls were crying. They’re so emotional.”

So, at least he got an astute life’s lesson out of his false alarm experience, which will hopefully provide some guidance when he starts dating.

Tags: , , ,

 

© 2010 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap