Paris (CNN) – This is a typical Wednesday lunch in Paris, the streets buzzing with tourists, terraces cluttered with tables as the howl of an air raid siren fills the air.
His moan tore the city apart for nearly two minutes, reaching a crescendo over the noon traffic before he perished.
This is a strange phenomenon. But the strange thing is that apart from a few confused tourists, no one seems to notice.
In France, on the first Wednesday of each month, sirens – originally intended as warnings of Cold War bombings – are sounded as alarms in about 2,000 towns and villages across the country.
Today, they serve as warnings of natural or industrial disasters, but with the war raging in eastern Europe, French authorities have issued statements to remind the French that 1 minute and 41 seconds of sky-splitting crying is a simple exercise.
“Surely, if there was a war, we would see it in the news or something,” said Ali Carali, a London-based tourist, as he heard the sirens this month in front of Notre Dame in Paris.
“I thought it might be important, but if it was, people don’t seem to care,” he told CNN.
However, the surprise is not limited to visitors.
“It is not uncommon for the prefecture to receive calls from people, locals or tourists who are concerned about the siren,” said Mathieu Pianese, head of the interdepartmental defense and civil protection service in Evelyn, a region west of Paris.
“Obviously, they are quickly reassured by our team, which has the right tools to address their concerns on the first Wednesday of the month.”
French love story
Sirens were installed throughout France after World War II to warn against Cold War bombings.
Archive of Hulton / Getty Images
The sirens that can be heard today can be traced back to the Middle Ages. Since then, it has been the responsibility of the administration to report any incident that could physically endanger the population.
One of the most common bells used at the time was known as the “toxin” found in churches and sounded by priests to warn the public of danger.
In 1914, bells rang for more than an hour in a number of cities to warn as many people as possible of the outbreak of World War I.
After World War II, sirens sounded and were placed to warn of potential air threats. Their deployment was accelerated during the Cold War and can now be heard throughout France.
In Maison-Laffitte, a city of about 23,000 inhabitants in the western suburbs of Paris, the main siren is located on the roof of the town hall. Only police officers have access to the siren, and city hall officials are given seats in the front row under its roar.
“It works well, don’t you think?” says Deputy Mayor Gino Neki as the siren goes off.
The way they work is relatively clear. “Prefecture agents can activate it through an app that’s pretty easy to access,” Pianese said. “This monthly test allows us to see which of our 47 sirens are ‘sick’ and need to be taken to a doctor. We need to fix them as soon as possible so that they are ready in case of a real emergency. ”
An archaic system?
Stefan Mollet, a technician at Maison Laffitte City Hall, opens a cupboard containing warning electronics.
CNN
Many have questioned the effectiveness of this warning system for decades. “France chose to keep the sirens because it has a certain heritage, a tradition behind it,” said Johnny Duvine, a geography professor at the University of Avignon.
As an expert on public warning systems, he explained that former President Charles de Gaulle had ordered the current system and that “despite various changes in the interior ministry, the priority given to sirens as a means of warning has always been maintained to this day. ”
Not everyone agrees with their usefulness. The sound of the siren is familiar to 92-year-old Jacqueline Bonn, who was a teenager during World War II. But hearing them regularly has “absolutely no effect on me,” she says, even though the sound is the same as it was almost a century ago.
“It would affect me a lot during the war, because they rang every time there was a bombing so we could go underground for protection.” Now she felt they had lost their meaning. “I really don’t see the point anymore,” she says.
But given today’s geopolitical developments, Duvine points out that the return of the war to European territory may have refreshed public thinking about sirens.
“The war in Ukraine has shown that sirens may not be as useless as people thought,” he said. “One thing is clear, when something happens, people want to be informed and warned.”
After Covid-19 and major events such as the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games on the horizon, “the Council wants to redouble risk and crisis management,” said Evelyn Pianese, head of civil defense.
A sign of the times
However, calls for a change in the system, which some say is outdated, are growing.
In 2019, a chemical plant caught fire one night in Rouen in northwestern France and a cloud of black smoke enveloped the city. The choice was made to use the sirens as a secondary warning measure and to activate only two of them a few hours after the fire started, to warn people after waking up in the morning.
Authorities, meanwhile, have chosen to communicate via Twitter and the media.
Addressing the government after the fire, the prefect of the Normandy region, Pierre-Andre Durand, said he believed the system had much room for improvement and that “we cannot manage the crises of the 21st century with a 20th century instrument.”
Switch to digital
Hardware controlling the warning system.
CNN
Durand’s wishes could come true this June because the sirens are paired with a new, upgraded system: France is testing “amber signal” -style mobile phone messages.
If they are effective, they should be introduced throughout the country by the summer. Although similar systems already exist in Europe and the United States, this technology is innovative, according to Mathieu Pianese, because it combines cellular broadcasting and location-based SMS technology.
This means that everyone in an area, regardless of their cellular network or telephone, will receive a signal from the authorities.
“These could be tourists who are just visiting the Evelyn area, for example,” Pianese said.
“Imagine that in the Palace of Versailles, where there are many tourists, they will all receive a warning. And probably in different languages.”
This does not mean the end of the old school siren. They are here to stay and will simply play a more complementary role in emergencies.
“It still allows you to reach quite large areas,” adds Pianese. “You have seen the power of the siren and I think it is very important to be able to maintain the things that have already been established. I think we are attached to it because it has a proven effectiveness, obviously not 100%, but it is still an efficiency historically linked to the crisis or the war in France. ”
Tradition has a special place in France and sirens are no exception.
So the next time you visit France and get caught up in something that sounds like an air raid, stay calm and remember that it’s probably just the beginning of the month.
Add Comment