The shelters were maintained, stocked with necessary supplies and able to be put into use on 72 hours notice. The shelters were deemed important throughout the Cold War, and built to protect Norwegians from aerial attacks, bombing, chemical and biological warfare and to reduce injury from radioactivity. Norway’s national civil defense agency (Sivilforsvaret) has no current overview, reports NRK, of the shelters that were built in the years following World War II, when Norway was invaded, occupied and bombed by both Nazi Germany and allied forces. “Today’s situation shows that Norwegian governments over many years have not paid enough attention to preparedness and security for the Norwegian population,” Member of Parliament Arild Hermstad, acting leader of the Greens Party (MDG), told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK), after it recently revealed a lack of inspections and supervision of the country’s roughly 20,000 shelters. Civil defense forces need to restore and stock shelters built in the years following World War II. The entrance to this old bomb shelter in Oslo’s Fagerborg neighbourhood was so heavily tagged that it’s difficult to find the sign depicting it as a potential place to seek protection. In some cases, local officials don’t even have control over how many bomb shelters are available or whether they can be used in case of an emergency. Norway’s bomb shelters have been branded as outdated and suffering from a chronic lack of maintenance.
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