Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday called on the Director-General of Personnel Administration to create a more “scientific” method to help local governments decide whether classes and work should be canceled due to a typhoon.
Ko made the remark in response to reporters’ queries following an inspection of the Chihtan Water Purification Plant in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店).
Asked if he regretted canceling classes and work yesterday given the calm weather in Taipei, Ko said that according to the Central Weather Bureau regulations, local governments should announce a typhoon day once the average wind speed reaches Level 7 on the Beaufort Scale or the instantaneous wind speed reaches Level 10.
Photo: CNA
However, other factors also have to be considered when a local government decides whether to announce a typhoon day, for example the potential negative impact on traffic and the expected precipitation, Ko said.
Saying that it is “not scientific” to use wind speed as the sole indicator for typhoon days, the mayor called on the Executive Yuan to hold an ad-hoc meeting with mayors and county commissioners to discuss new rules that incorporate traffic and rainfall as determining factors for typhoon days.
Asked if he would consider calling a half-day cancelation of classes and work, Ko said that he had done so before and drawn heavy criticism.
“I make mistakes, but I am not the kind of person who repeats them,” he said.
Ko earlier in the day accompanied Premier Lin Chuan (林全) to inspect the water purification plant and lobbied for the Executive Yuan to fully fund a pipeline connecting the Feitsui Reservoir and the plant, so that the city could supply residents with tap water directly tapped from the reservoir and avoid the suspensions caused by a rise in turbidity levels.
Lin said that he would help the city mediate with the Environmental Protection Administration to speed up an environmental impact assessment needed for the project and push its completion date of late 2022 forward by between six months and a year.
Meanwhile, local government’s issued various statements yesterday explaining why they had declared a typhoon day when Typhoon Megi had already exited the nation.
Some pointed to forecast wind speeds and volume of rain, others said that it was so that the public could clean up after the storm or a safety precaution.
Typhoon Megi struck on Tuesday when five local governments — Yunlin County, Chiayi, Chiayi County, Tainan City and Kaohsiung — had announced a half-day off for the typhoon.
After angry netizens criticized the mayors and county commissioners for the half-day off on Tuesday, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) and Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) made televised apologies and authorized as early as Tuesday evening a typhoon day for yesterday.
Hualien, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou and Taitung counties originally said classes and work were to continue as normal yesterday, but later changed their decisions seemingly due to criticism from netizens, with Hualien County making the surprise declaration of a typhoon day at midnight.
Other local governments were also hesitant in making a decision — Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and Keelung delayed making the decision until 10pm on Tuesday.
In the end, every local government announced a typhoon day for yesterday.
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