If it seems that preparing for a crisis has been talked about loudly for years, how is it possible that an average storm can knock out a large part of Estonia for a week? Are we prepared for a serious crisis at all?

In the programme, we pointed out that Estonia’s crisis management and civil defence today can only be measured on the axis of problematic to inadequate. The recent storms in October, which left many people without electricity for a week, showed that we are already struggling to cope with storm crisis management.

Separately, the absurdity of the closure of the Kopli fire depot that has special capacities, which has been repeatedly pointed out by the Estonian Rescue Workers Union, as well as the City of Tallinn and one of the largest companies in the Northern Tallinn district, BLRT (Baltic Ship Repair Works), was also discussed.

For national defence to be comprehensive, it is necessary to see the protection of the state and its people as a whole, rather than as two completely different and unrelated areas. One complements the other, neither can exist without the other. Unfortunately, Estonia is practising the latter, a completely contradictory approach, where people are without a civil defence system and civilians seem to be encouraged to be for themselves.

If such an approach is ruled out in the military for obvious reasons, then for some reason the leadership of the country believes that civil defence is a self-perpetuating phenomenon that can emerge and organise itself from nothing.  Well it doesn’t quite work like that. 

You can listen the programme here!

(Photo: Kirke Ert/ERR).