How Czechia is prepared for sirens: the nearest shelter is a basement

After incidents near its border with Ukraine, Poland has stepped up how it informs residents about crises, while Czechia is not preparing a similar law. According to Karla Mráčková, spokeswoman for the Government Office, the crisis management and warning system works, and Czech authorities still count mainly on a basement or one's own home as the nearest shelter.

What Poland has done and how Czechia responds

The Polish government has issued a 20-page leaflet on what to do when the sirens sound. In late September it began mailing residents a printed version in case of an air strike. It advises people to learn the alarm signals, find the nearest shelters and the route to them, pack an evacuation bag and agree on how to stay in touch with family. If a shelter is far away, it recommends hiding inside a building away from windows, with at least two walls between you and the street. Poland's Defense Ministry is also preparing a law to strengthen the country's defense capability.

In Czechia, Mráčková said, no such bill is planned: every country responds with its own tools, and Czechia assesses needs and takes measures against current risks. She added that there is currently no evidence of a direct threat to the country. The Defense Ministry told Seznam Zprávy that the crisis and defense legislation is under review.

Why the topic is contentious

Experts say that in Czechia talk of preparing for a crisis is often met as “scaremongering about war.” The Interior Ministry had to defend itself when the “72 Hours” leaflet came out last year, and so did Karel Řehka, now the former chief of the General Staff, over his statements about threats.

Jan Patýva, former head of the dissolved Crisis Information Group, considers this perception a problem. According to him, research shows that the overwhelming majority of residents want the state to prepare them, while politicians' reassurances that nothing will happen do not help preparedness. Václav Pelikán, head of the crisis management department at the Police Presidium, added that without drills we will not be ready for a crisis. Patýva also criticizes the end of the “72 Hours” project, which in his view should have continued for local governments and special groups such as the elderly and children.

The Interior Ministry's Crisis Information Group appeared in 2022, after the war in Ukraine began. The current minister, Lubomír Metnar (ANO), decided in March this year to dissolve it, calling it a return to the natural structure. The move was meant to save staff positions. Hana Malá, from the ministry's communications department, said the ministry is revising the leaflet for residents, adding topics such as improvised shelters and hybrid threats, and drawing on the experience of Poland, Finland and Latvia.

What cities and firefighters are doing

Based on the “72 Hours” leaflet, Prague launched the “Be Prepared, Not Surprised!” campaign last fall: a website, a series of podcasts and paper flyers. According to a City Hall survey, a third of Praguers noticed it over four tracked days, and the website drew 30,000 visitors in a year without mass advertising. In Brno, a few hundred people a month visit the safety website, and in early September the authorities chose a supplier for a central crisis communication system. Jan Dohnal (ODS), the mayor of Ostrava, said the city has a solid crisis management system and holds drills. Cities, he added, will not replace the state.

According to the firefighters' press office, they train about 200,000 residents a year, including seniors and people with disabilities. Patýva estimates that the stated readiness of Czechs is around 27 percent and awareness 30–40 percent. The hardest task, in his words, is to increase the share of people who are truly prepared.

The Interior Ministry said that in 2027 the CZ-Alert system will be added to sirens, local text messages, the media and social networks: a warning will reach the phones of a chosen district or the whole country.

Where to take cover and what to bring

Firefighters' spokeswoman Klára Ochmanová explained that Czechia, like most European countries, relies not on permanent shelters but on other ways of taking cover. Improvised shelters are underground garages, basements, shopping centers and tunnels chosen in advance, which would be reinforced and sealed if the state faced a threat. The firefighters keep a map of such places on their website. According to Patýva, the nearest shelter will most often be one's own apartment: the “two walls” in the middle of the home, or a basement, since the old shelters were designed for a nuclear threat.

One of the main elements of preparation is considered to be an evacuation bag for a long stay in a shelter or temporary housing. It can be a backpack, a bag or a suitcase: an adult's should weigh no more than 25 kg, a child's no more than 10 kg. It should be labeled with a name, address and phone number.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz