Blackouts and other disasters

Timothy Prior and Florian Roth of the 'risk and resilience' team at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) will be appearing as experts on today's SRF theme day on blackouts. The two researchers work in the field of disaster management, resilience, and risk and crisis communication. ETH News wanted to know about the state of readiness in Switzerland. How would the Swiss population be notified in the event of a blackout? - Roth: The population would primarily be informed by radio, as per tradition. Under some circumstances, for example, if the drinking water supply were contaminated as a result of the blackout, police cars would drive through the streets, or sirens with the 'general alarm' function would be used. In such situations, it is crucial to warn the population quickly. For the theme day, SRF is examining the idea of a Europe-wide blackout.