LRT English Newsletter – May 22, 2026.
It’s just past 9:30 on Wednesday morning. You are grabbing a second coffee, cramming for an exam, or waiting for your flight at Vilnius airport.
Suddenly, your phone goes off – "Air alert! Immediately head to a shelter or a safe space." The alert directs you to the government's emergency preparedness portal, LT72.lt. You try opening the website – it crashes. The app won't open. The shelter map won't load. You eventually find your way to the nearest designated shelter – it's locked. An underground parking lot will have to do.
At school, the administration looks uncertain. Some students are shepherded to the basement, only to find it half-blocked by old furniture and construction equipment – no room for everyone. The rest wait in windowless interior corridors.
At Vilnius airport, recently renovated, there's no shelter at all. Flights are delayed as airspace closes, but the terminal carries on largely as normal. Some foreign visitors, who never got the alert in English, are tapping locals on the shoulder asking what on earth is going on (here’s how to change that).
