On November 19, Umbria will be involved in a new test of the IT-Alert system, the national Civil Protection tool designed to send immediate alerts to citizens in case of emergencies. This exercise will affect a limited area of the province of Terni and will simulate an industrial accident in a plant classified as at risk.
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Test time and area involved
At 4.40pm, mobile phones located within a 2km radius around the Acciai Speciali Terni SpA plant will receive a test message. The plant is among those subject to the Seveso Directive, legislation that regulates industries with potential chemical risks. The notification, accompanied by the characteristic audible alarm, will only be a test and will not entail any real danger.
The Civil Protection explained that periodically checking the functioning of IT-Alert is essential to ensure the efficiency of the system. The activity allows you to check the coverage of telephone cells, test the communication channels envisaged by the external emergency plans and improve the operational response in the event of a real event. Once citizens have received the message, they are invited to fill out a questionnaire available on the official website, useful for collecting information and reports.
What to do when the alert arrives
The content of the alert will be recognizable by the wording “TEST TEST”, precisely to avoid misunderstandings. The text will inform you of the simulation of an industrial accident in the area where the user is located and will refer you to the page www.it-alert.gov.it to read the message that would be delivered in a real situation. When the alarm sounds, it is not necessary to take any security action: you simply need to read the notification, familiarize yourself with the contents and leave the settings active that allow the phone to receive alerts.
The initiative has a dual objective: to improve the area’s response capacity and to accustom citizens to receiving this type of message. In fact, the Civil Protection recalls that IT-Alert was designed to communicate quickly and directly with the population in case of emergencies such as industrial accidents, floods or other critical events. The participation of citizens, even just by filling out the questionnaire, contributes in a concrete way to perfecting a tool that can prove decisive.
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