Civil Defense

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Some people are called in to Civil Defense in Norway. My best comparison to it is a minor similarity to the National Guard because Civil Defense is what the country calls on when there's a state of emergency or problems like forest fire, floods and rescue missions. The purpose of the Civil Defense can be read here. My husband occasionally gets called in for practice or meetings with the Civil Defense. He hates it. Mostly because this is something he gets called in to do. It's not something he's volunteering for. While some people work in Civil Defense voluntarily and make a career out of it, others like my hubs are called in for "duty."

The portion he works in when he gets a call to come in and practice is a unit in decontamination. So, for example, if there were a local meth lab explosion or some other catastrophe where decontamination would be needed, he'd be called in to work on the site.

My grumpy man in uniform. 

Last week, my grumpy man had a Civil Defense day where he had to go to an agriculture school and had to practice clean up of "foot-and-mouth disease." They had to set up tents and the teenagers who participated in the event of the mock disaster were given showers within the tents.

Another example of when and how the decontamination unit of Civil Defense would be used is in case of terrorist attacks, biological terrorism or in case a person or group of people need to be cleaned and decontaminated before being sent to a hospital.

It's very rare to get called in to work for Civil Defense. Only about 8,000 people in the country are called in to work within Civil Defense - 8,000 out of 5 million people or 0.16% of the population. No wonder my husband pouts and whines about it, but the good news is, when he's 55 he can retire.


Comments

H. Bratset said…
Wow! That's super interesting. Why is he one of the few that are called? Did he initially sign up for it, or was he randomly chosen? I guess I'm wondering if my husband will have to do anything like that when we move to Norway. It's good that people are trained and there is a system in place. Sorry for him that he has to go though.
May 1, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Evelyn Sand said…
I'm not entirely sure why, but they just choose people at random. Some people initially sign in for it and make a career out of it. My husband was one of the random people. It's kind of like jury duty, but once chosen you just have to keep going back. On the bright side, when people are chosen their work pays them their normal pay plus Civil Defense gives them around $50 USD if married and a bit more if they have children. :-)
May 1, 2013 at 3:37 PM
H. Bratset said…
So, I asked my husband about this. When it was time for him to go to the army, he went to the police station and said he was a pacifist or something like that so he got a civil service job instead. Well, he was supposedly supposed to be part of a civil defense group as well, but he apparently fell through the cracks! I wonder what would have happened with him living here in Kentucky if he had to serve in the civil defense group. I wonder if he would've been able to get out of it, or if he'd have to go back when called. Interesting.
May 2, 2013 at 9:08 PM
Arild B. Sand said…
They just pick people at random, yeah. Usually people in their early 20s I think so if you're past a certain age, you can probably feel safe you won't get called in. I was actually called in while I was at university so I got it postponed for a couple of years while I was studying but once I was done with my degree, it was straight to civil defense course.

If you have very good reasons, like medical or you live very far away, you can get out of it. Unfortunately I don't have any good excuse to get out of it! If you move abroad, and certainly to Kentucky, that would definitely be valid reason to be excused.
May 3, 2013 at 9:29 AM
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