Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

Reut’s Home Front Team recently visited  Ashdod Municipality in order to learn about the city’s preparedness for emergencies.

During a meeting with Dina Bar Ulpan we heard how Ashdod has managed to expand, prosper and generally undergo a major urban change over recent decades.

Ashdod’s Preparedness stems from four aspects:

Urban Planning and Conduct – Ashdod is a well planned and built city. The City’s clear division into neighborhoods, marked by wide boulevards, allows the Municipality to organize and manage the community better during routine and in times of crises.

Culture of Preparedness – The Municipality has invested a lot in order to achieve a high level of preparedness enabling it to cope with the toughest emergency scenarios, such as a major earthquake. This effort resulted in building and improving municipal emergency infrastructure, such as the city hall building, which has a fully equipped outer underground emergency compound.

The ‘Success Narrative’ – In the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead the Municipality returned to its routine with a sense of success. One central ingredient of this was a close and strategic partnership between the Municipality, the inhabitants and different stakeholders in the city.

Solidarity and Local Volunteering – Ashdod is very proud of the performance of its volunteers, among them numerous high school youngsters especially trained to help the local community during emergencies.

These four aspects enable Ashdod to cope with and function during a crisis.