the emergency system is triggered for the 1st time due to thunderstorms

FR-Alert, the government’s emergency system, was triggered for the first time in mainland France due to violent storms. We remind you how this system works.

For years now, our governments have been trying to launch a reliable and effective warning system. In 2016, there were indeed the SAIP app (Warning and population information system). Developed in a hurry after the attacks of November 13, 2015, the tool had an avalanche of bugs and proved totally ineffective during the truck attack on July 14, 2016 in Nice.

Inevitably, SAIP was shelved and the government decided to work on another solution, this time based on cellbroadcoast (cellular broadcasting): FR-Alert.

After more than twenty tests and exercises carried out in 2022, the system officially came into operation at the end of June 2022. As stated on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, FR-Alert therefore makes it possible to “warn anyone with a mobile phone in real time of their presence in a danger zone in order to inform them of the behavior to adopt to protect themselves”.

FR-Alert triggered for the first time in mainland France for a weather alert

After a first official alert triggered during the fires in Gironde last summer, FR-Alert was deployed again on July 11, 2023 for a meteorological risk. A first in mainland France (the system was triggered in February 2023 for cyclone Freddy in Reunion).

Many Internet users shared on Twitter the messages sent by the prefectures of the five departments placed on stormy red alert : the territory of Belfort, the Jura, the Haut-Rhin, the Haute-Saône and the Doubs. Thus, the authorities advised the inhabitants concerned:

• to stay at home and avoid any outdoor activity
• stay away from trees and waterways
• to take shelter in a safe and protected place
• close doors, windows and shutters and remove any object that can fly away
• stay in a safe place until the authorities declare the alert is over

As a reminder, this notification is sent to the smartphone of each inhabitant present in the area concerned by the alert. It is also accompanied by a specific sound signal, audible even if your device is silent. No app is required to receive these alerts.

Nevertheless, “depending on the brand of the mobile phone, the operator and the place in which you are at the time of the sending of the alert, different reception times for the notifications may be observed”, specifies the Place Beauvau.