The most important apps and websites for emergencies
Apps do not replace being prepared – but they can warn you before things get dangerous. Here are the official services that are worth having. Set them up calmly now, not during an emergency.
Warnings
- AT-Alert (Austria): no app needed. Just check the emergency alerts in your phone settings once.
- Cell Broadcast (Germany): no app needed either. Switch on all warning levels, including "danger information" – that is how all-clears arrive.
- NINA (Germany): the federal warning app with civil protection, police, weather and flood warnings.
- WarnWetter (Germany): the German Weather Service app. The free version shows official severe weather warnings down to municipality level.
- Weather warnings in Austria: GeoSphere Austria warns around the clock at warnungen.zamg.at about wind, rain, snow, black ice, thunderstorms, heat and cold. For all of Europe there is Meteoalarm.
Calling for help
- DEC112 (Austria): emergency calls by chat for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, also as a silent emergency call to the police.
- nora (Germany): the official emergency app of the federal states, also usable without speaking.
Saving lives
- Team Österreich Lebensretter: an initiative of the Red Cross and the radio station Ö3. If a cardiac arrest is suspected, the app alerts registered first aiders nearby – two go to the patient, two fetch the nearest defibrillator. You can join if you are over 18, have a smartphone and are willing to perform CPR.
Think offline
In a major power cut, mobile networks and the internet may fail. Then apps no longer help – a battery or crank radio does. Also write down important phone numbers on paper.