Planning for the annual Wanan air raid drill has been completed and a general air raid simulation in the northern regions of Taiwan, including Taipei, will be held today, the Ministry of National Defense’s Reserve Command said.
According to the Reserve Command, because the dispersal of crowds has been carried out and practiced many times during past air raid drills and the public had a general knowledge of what to do, air raid drills will from now on be carried out once every two years to avoid unnecessarily disturbing people’s daily lives.
This year’s drill will focus on the ordering and transmission of air raid alerts and will not involve traffic control or crowd dispersal, it said.
The drills will start at 2pm and conclude at 2:30pm in every area affected.
The Joint Air Operations Center will issue the air raid warning at exactly the same time in different areas, the command said, adding that all municipal governments’ civilian defense units should be surveying, testing and managing bomb shelters and equipment throughout the year.
The National Police Agency will review the process, investigate and verify the measures that all local governments use to evacuate civilians to bomb shelters, and determine which parts can be performed better, the command said.
The general air raid drill will be held in different areas on different dates, with the northern region of the country today, central Taiwan on May 17, Penghu on May 25, southern Taiwan on May 29, the east coast on May 31, Kinmen on June 7 and Matzu on June 12, the command said.
Translated by Jake Chung, staff writer
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