The government is to stage nationwide disaster-preparedness drills ahead of National Disaster Prevention Day on Sept. 21, officials said yesterday.
The drills would be organized by the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the Council of Indigenous Peoples.
Executive Yuan Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵) told a news conference at the Taipei Railway Station that the 921 Earthquake of Sept. 21, 1999, was a painful memory for many Taiwanese, but it was after the magnitude 7.3 temblor that Taiwan began to examine how it responds to natural disasters.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The annual observance of National Disaster Prevention Day is to remind people that preparedness increases safety, he said.
The government is to hold drills over two days in Yilan County to test people’s preparedness to respond to a magnitude 8.5 earthquake off the east coast which triggers a tsunami affecting the nation’s northern and eastern regions, Chang said.
“Disasters know no political affiliations or national borders. Through the drill, people would learn how they should react during natural disasters, so that society can continue to function in times of crisis,” he said.
Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said that the drills are an opportunity to assess the nation’s disaster-response capabilities, as well as its ability to return to normalcy afterward.
“We invite corporations, schools, communities and government agencies of all levels to join us in the drills,” Liu said, adding that people need to know how to help themselves and others in emergency situations and enhance their awareness of disaster prevention.
In addition to the two-day drill in Yilan County from Sept. 17 to 19, another two-day drill testing the readiness of rescue workers would be held on Sept. 18 and 19 in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Park.
At 9:21am on Sept. 19, a presidential alert would be issued to simulate the occurrence of a large earthquake.
The Central Weather Administration said it has 736 earthquake detection stations nationwide, which are equipped with seismometers recording extremely small earthquakes and detecting signs of larger earthquake early.
In the Taiwan Chelungpu Fault Drilling Project created following the 921 Earthquake, seismologists from Taiwan, Japan, the US, Germany and Italy analyzed deep fragmentations of faults through rock cores obtained in the drilling, the agency said.
The results have enabled the development of technologies to detect earthquakes and establish earthquake resistance standards for buildings, it said.
People would be educated about earthquakes through a series of activities on National Disaster Prevention Day on Sept. 21.
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