The central government should make the final decision on work and school cancelations when there is a typhoon, the legislature’s Transportation Committee said yesterday.
At present, local governments are tasked with making the final decision on whether to call a typhoon day.
Criticism over the current system intensified when five local governments — Yunlin County, Chiayi city and county, Tainan and Kaohsiung — announced a half-day off on Sept. 27 when Typhoon Megi hit the nation between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28.
The five city mayors and county commissioners earned the ire of netizens, as heavy rain and strong winds pounded their areas on the morning of the 27th.
Public outrage mounted as television broadcasts showed students, parents and office workers braving the stormy weather on their way home after spending a half day at school or work.
The five local government heads said their decision was made based on information provided by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).
Following the intense public criticism, all local governments declared Sept. 28 a typhoon day, although the storm was expected to have left the nation by then.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said that it is impossible for weather forecasts to be absolutely accurate, even though they are projected using scientific methods.
While the CWB should strive to reduce the margin of error in its forecasts, these elected local officials are under tremendous pressure to make a decision on whether to declare a typhoon day, he said.
“Making such a political decision is a very difficult thing to do, because they become the targets of criticism if they get it wrong,” he said.
Lin proposed amending the law to allow the weather bureau and the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration to jointly declare a typhoon day.
Local government officials can use the announcement as a reference to decide if they want to follow the central government’s decision, while taking into account the typhoon’s potential impact on their respective localities, Lin said.
“The weather bureau has the administrative authority to forecast and disseminate weather information in the nation and should be able to decide if the next day should be a typhoon day. City mayors and county commissioners should not be counted on to make those decisions, as if they were gods,” DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn (辛在勤) said that current rules state that local governments can use typhoon updates released at 10pm to decide if work and school should be canceled the following day.
They can also use the updates between 4am and 5am on the next day as reference in making a decision, Shin said.
“The problem was many wanted to make decisions quickly, and called and asked us about the information at 5pm the day before, and there is not much we can do about that,” Shin said.
The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration is the final authority that decides if all work and school should be canceled, Shin added.
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