The Smiltene sports hall has become the first facility in the municipality to have a green "Shelter" sign at its door. The basement of the hall has three changing rooms and one lounge, which could shelter up to 100 people during a temporary crisis. The shelter could accommodate people for up to 72 hours.
A total of almost 80 basements were inspected in Smiltene, of which 13 were fully compliant and 22 only partially,
Gatis Bormanis, the municipality's household manager, said:
"As a municipality, we see that these partially compliant cellars still need to be improved. So we will see in the budget what is needed so that we can also adapt them to these shelter possibilities. So we would then also add to the number of shelters in Smiltene municipality."
The VUGD said that when inspecting basements, there are three main factors that determine their eligibility for shelter status.
"They must be accessible to the public. There must be no electricity or water mains running through and there must be no flooded areas, which are mostly non-compliant where basements are already flooded. Then it is further assessed whether there are two entrances, evacuation exits," said Andris Kellijs, Head of the Vidzeme Region of the VUGD.
Residents of apartment buildings can also contact the building managers to check the suitability of their basements for shelter status. However, there is not much interest.
"In Gulbene region I know that there were [cases] when private persons applied, but there is no active response to this from private persons yet," Kellijs said.
Meanwhile, Bormanis called on residents to assess and inspect their basements:
"Make shelters available, because not everyone will have one, and shelters should be available within a few minutes of their accommodation. We will not ask people to go to this shelter from the other side of the city."
Meanwhile, Sandra Vējiņa, Senior Inspector of the Prevention and Public Awareness Division of the VUGD, urged people to prepare themselves for crisis situations:
"In your house, take care of water, and food for yourself for 72 hours, so at that moment the municipality has these three days of time, because for all the responsible services to activate some kind of assistance support mechanisms, it will not happen in a minute, not in a day."
In Vidzeme, the VUGD had to inspect a total of 924 cellars. Of these, 76 were compliant and around 220 were partially compliant.
