Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1536266
sea. Why? Because those regions have tourist infrastructure: hotels, guesthouses, spas, where evacuees can be accommodated. And all this might be happening under threat of air and missile attacks across all Po‑ land. Summary Unfortunately, that is not the worst‐ case scenario. The worst is the oc‑ cupation of a significant part – or ultimately all – of Poland. Even if temporary, even only east of the Vistula, it is an even greater chal‑ lenge. We are no longer talking abo‑ ut a threat but its materialization of that threat. We would face not only organising evacuation but also coping with the movement of people who for various reasons were not evacuated earlier and later attempt to flee occupied or threatened areas on their own. One must also plan for actions in liberated areas to rebu‑ ild them and provide tolerable living conditions. An open question is how to maintain the ability to help people in occupied territories. Thus, even at a high level of generali‑ ty, there are countless challenges – plus many more specific ones. For example, in wartime the burden on the rescue‑and‑firefighting system will be far greater. Both professio‑ nal and volunteer fire brigades are currently regarded as one of the pillars of the population‑protection and civil‑defense system – but will it be easy to increase their num‑ bers, even counting on volunteer brigades? It may be necessary to prepare reserve fire‑brigade forma‑ tions, especially in areas particularly vulnerable to bombing. Equipment may also be an issue. During the last flood several volunteer brigades lost their vehicles fighting the delu‑ ge – and replacing them became a problem. It might be prudent to build a reserve of firefighting vehicles – even unified with military trucks to simplify logistics. Similarly, for civil defence one could prepare a war‑ time reserve of off‑road and utility vehicles, preferably easy to operate and repair. There will be many more such challenges that warrant care‑ ful analysis. What Kind of Civil Defense? ANALYSIS