President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Lin Chuan (林全) yesterday inspected the Central Emergency Operations Center ahead of Typhoon Nepartak’s landfall, urging all government agencies to be on full alert.
After arriving at the center in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) in the afternoon, the premier expressed concern about the impact that the typhoon might have.
“I am worried, as it looks like the typhoon will have the most serious impact during the night, and it will be more difficult to deal with any incident if it occurs during the night,” Lin told Cabinet representatives at the center, including Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), the center’s chief commander.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
“We must stay in close contact with local governments throughout the night, so we can get first-hand information immediately, and provide rescue and assistance when problems occur,” the premier said.
Lin also asked the center to follow up with local governments on evacuations of residents in vulnerable areas.
The Council of Agriculture said “yellow” and “red” alerts for mudslides have been issued for 300 rivers and creeks in New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung, as well as Yilan, Hsinchu, Nantou and Hualien counties.
Evacuations of more than 1,000 people living in the potentially dangerous areas were ongoing at press time last night, with the help of the military.
Taiwan Power Co (台電) estimates that as many as 3.1 million households might suffer power failures due to the storm, adding that it is prepared for immediate response to any such outages.
The president arrived about an hour after Lin, promising the public that the government would make maximum efforts to safeguard lives and public property, while asking those on the front line to stay safe.
“Evacuations are very important. I would like to ask everyone to take this seriously, as the typhoon is coming right at us,” Tsai said. “I know some people might not want to leave their homes, but when a decision [on evacuating] has been made, just go ahead and carry it out. I would like to ask our local governments and elected representatives to help convince people to leave to avoid greater damage.”
“We have to carefully face the situation in the coming 24 hours,” Tsai added.
Responding to the president’s call, Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said that the armed forces are fully prepared, and would regard rescue missions as battles.
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