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.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS