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Finland CIVIL DEFENSE
Under the Civil Defense Act of 1958, the Ministry of
Interior
was directed to provide civil defense to protect persons
and
property in wartime as well as in peacetime. The act
stipulated
that the ministry was to be responsible for providing
shelters in
high-risk areas, for evacuating civilian population from
threatened areas, and for limiting damage from natural
disasters.
In emergency situations, firefighting, rescue, ambulance,
and
first-aid services were coordinated with the civil defense
effort. Civil defense operations were entirely a civilian
responsibility.
The ministry delegated the implementation of national
policy
to county and municipal authorities, which acted through
locally
appointed civil defense boards. These boards supervised
operations from more than 100 civil defense centers
designated
throughout the country. Personnel in national and local
government agencies, committed to civil defense in
emergency
situations, and in independent voluntary organizations
that would
come under their jurisdiction numbered over 100,000.
Nongovernment organizations involved in civil defense
activities
included the Finnish Red Cross and the Rescue Service.
Police
were also assigned to reinforce civil defense workers as
conditions required.
An alarm system was in place in urban centers to warn
the
civilian population of threatened attacks. During an
emergency
situation, instructions would be broadcast through normal
media
channels. The early warning civil defense system was tied
into
the nationwide military air surveillance system.
The Ministry of Interior maintained hard shelters,
capable of
accommodating 2.6 million persons, in cities and in other
densely
populated areas where two-thirds of the country's
population
lived. They were built to withstand the detonation of a
100-
kiloton nuclear bomb at ground zero. There was no shelter
program
in rural areas nor were most detached dwellings and
townhouses
equipped with shelters. About 10 percent of the shelters
were
carved out of natural rock, but most were beneath office
and
residential buildings. Some were designed for multiple use
as
parking garages, schoolrooms, skating rinks, and swimming
pools.
By law, builders were obliged to include shelters in
blocks
measuring 3,000 cubic meters or more. In Helsinki, 536,000
spaces
were provided, of which 118,000 were in large rock
shelters and
14,000 were in subway stations. The shelter space was
sufficient
to accommodate over 100 percent of the nighttime
population of
the city, but only 67 percent of the daytime population.
The most serious shortcoming of Finland's civil defense
system was that 1.5 million Finns had no access to
shelters.
Another reason for concern was that many shelters were
poorly
equipped and maintained. All shelters were supposed to be
outfitted with self-contained power and ventilation
systems,
sanitary facilities, and emergency supplies. Nevertheless,
inspections during 1986 found that two-thirds of shelters
in
private buildings had some deficiencies.
Contingency plans included massive evacuation of
civilians
from likely target areas, threatened with attack by
conventional
forces in time of war. Medical services for civilian
casualties
would be provided at local facilities in coordination with
the
civil defense branch of the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Health. Civil defense authorities considered, however,
that
evacuation of the civilian population to escape fallout
following
a nuclear attack would be pointless, and no provision was
made
for such a contingency.
The public's perception of civil defense efforts was
marked
by considerable indifference during the 1980s. Although
its
system was far more complete than the systems in most
countries
of Western Europe, Finland's annual expenditure per capita
on
civil defense of US$12 was well below the rate of other
Scandinavian countries, which averaged US$20 per capita.
The
nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986
underscored Finland's vulnerability and triggered renewed
concern
over shortcomings in the civil defense program. In
response, the
government announced plans in 1988 to introduce an
automatic
radiation surveillance network to supplement the existing
manual
one and to ensure that an outdoor alarm system was
operational in
all municipalities.
Data as of December 1988
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