A blackout event can occur for a number of reasons: natural disasters, earthquakes, extreme weather, and also in war. Magen David Adom has been taking preparatory measures to avoid issues hindering its medical teams from reaching incident scenes.

MDA has developed alternative communications channels and plans for operating emergency lines in situations where they would receive many emergency calls at the same time.

To ensure MDA’s readiness, drills in which medics practice treating people wounded by rocket fire have been carried out in multiple cities around Israel, such as Harish and Modi’in, without electricity and electronic communications.

“In order to respond to casualties and patients even in cases where the State of Israel suffers a blackout or a communications outage, whether as a result of a natural disaster or the result of security escalation, MDA takes steps to maintain operational continuity,” remarked Felix Lotan, MDA’s Emergency Department Director. “MDA purchased generators and backup medical equipment for this purpose.”

“MDA is also training teams among the general public to provide initial medical response in the areas where they live,” Lotan went on. “They are learning to adapt to situations of electricity and communications outages.”

“As Israel’s national rescue service organization, MDA must meet the highest standards, even in situations where we lack electricity,” said Director-General Eli Bin. “For this purpose, the organization invested considerable resources in procurement and manpower training in order to meet all challenges and the national goal of saving lives.”