Taiwan is planning to hold a series of disaster response drills next month, which would include trials of its earthquake warning system, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) said yesterday.
Scheduled for Sept. 17 to 19 to coincide with the annual National Disaster Prevention Day, the drills would simulate a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in the Ryukyu Trench east of Taiwan, followed by a tsunami, Deputy Minister of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said at a press conference.
The main event would be a three-day exercise in Yilan County, simulating large-scale rescue operations in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami, Ma said.
Photo: CNA
An earthquake rescue drill would also be held at Xinzhuang Sports Park in New Taipei City on Sept. 18 and 19, he said.
As part of the disaster response exercise, an earthquake alert would be sent to mobile phones throughout Taiwan at 9:21am on Sept. 19, advising people to “drop, take cover, and hold on,” Ma said.
At 9:30am on the same day, a tsunami warning would be issued to people in coastal areas of the country, and from 10:59 to 11:01am, all television stations would cut to the Public Television Service channel, where disaster prevention messages would be broadcast, he said.
Taiwan initiated National Disaster Prevention Day on Sept. 21, 2000, one year after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck its central regions, killing more than 2,400 people.
This year, the National Fire Agency would also conduct various disaster prevention drills and awareness campaigns from next Monday to Oct. 31, according to the agency’s Deputy Director-General Feng Chun-yi (馮俊益).
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS