Warnings of dangers such as floods, toxic smoke or a terrorist attack sometimes come from a jacket pocket or backpack in Germany: namely, when a cell phone owner has the warning app Nina or Katwarn installed on their device. These free apps allow authorities to issue targeted warnings to the population of affected areas so that people can get to safety. The cell phone apps are a response to the fact that many sirens have been dismantled in Germany over the past 30 years, which previously alerted people with wailing sounds.
The best known is the warning app NINA (https://www.bbk.bund.de/DE/Warnung-Vorsorge/Warn-App-NINA/warn-app-nina_node.html). It comes from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and combines warnings from the Civil Protection and German Weather Service as well as local flood reports from the federal states. It is available for both Android and Apple. Specific warnings for certain areas are also possible via GPS. Currently, the app has 10 million subscribers, according to the Federal Office.
The warning app Katwarn (https://www.katwarn.de/) is operated by public insurers and the Fraunhofer Institute Fokus. It, too, processes warnings from federal and state authorities, the offices of affiliated counties, as well as fire and police departments and flood and earthquake centers, and is available in both app stores. On Katwarn, users can also subscribe to topic-related alerts—for music festivals, for example. The app is also internationally networked, so it can also help abroad.
However, both apps have a catch. They require mobile and power networks to be working. However, the great floods in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia in 2021 showed how quickly these fail in the event of major catastrophes, where it was also no longer possible to charge cell phones. Civil protection experts therefore advise people not to rely solely on digital warnings, but also to listen to radio and loudspeaker announcements in the event of an emergency. Therefore, they say, people should have a portable radio in their homes that can run on batteries.
In response to problems with alerts in the 2021 Ahr Valley, the federal government decided to introduce cell broadcasting. The process, which already exists in many countries around the world, makes it possible to send alerts via SMS to all cell phones dialed into the radio cell of a disaster area, regardless of installed apps. The service is expected to launch at the end of 2022.
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Warnapps wie NINA oder Katwarn schicken Informationen zun Unwettern oder Katastrophen. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Martin Klaus.
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