For the first time in its 60 year existence, Israel had a nation-wide emergency response drill. It was like the school fire drills from when I was a kid....except in this country there is a real possibility of needing to use this system!

There are two different siren sounds in Israel. One is a steady, consistent blaring horn that signals everyone to stop what they are doing on יום הזכרון (Memorial Day), get out of their cars, stand at attention, and remember the brave men and women who gave their lives in defense of this country. Today’s siren went in waves, louder, quieter, louder, quieter - like a police siren. It was a very eerie sound, one I hope I never hear again.

The country has been prepping for the drill for a while now, and everyone knew it was coming. So I didn’t see any panic. It went off while I was sitting at the bus stop, waiting for the #24. I looked around me, and realized that if it had been a true emergency, I wouldn’t know where to go! I remembered that somewhere on a stone wall behind me, there was a sign for a מקלט, shelter, and that it had an arrow pointing me towards one. So I could have followed it. Alternatively, I could have scaled the low stone wall in front of the apartment complex across the street, and joined its residents in their shelter.

And then the siren went off, the bus showed up, and I went to school like normal. But I haven’t quite put it out of my mind yet. I know that in theory, the fire drills that I practiced in elementary school in the States could have been needed to be put to use. But more often then not, the fire alarm went off because some teenager was pulling a prank or hoping to get out of a test by sending everyone out of the building. This drill may have been just that, a drill, a practice, and a test. But in reality, the likelihood of needing to put into practice what we have learned is far higher than those fire drills of my childhood.

On a personal note, the noise of the siren was a bit jarring to me. It reminded me of the siren from the ambulance that took my brother to the hospital when he was struck by a car as a kid. I’m nearly positive that it didn’t actually have the same sound - but the message of the noise was the same: get out of the way, we have an emergency!!! And it made me wonder how many other people in the country, at that very moment, were having flashbacks to other life-threatening situations they have experienced. I know that the drill was a necessity, but it pleased me to read CNN’s report which noted that the town of Sderot, which regularly hears these sirens as a sign of real live danger, would not be participating in the “fire drill”.

This entire country is filled with trauma survivors, people with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and terror victims. I was able to go about my day fairly normally, with this drill only nagging a little in the back of my head. I wonder how many other people were so lucky.