The Central Emergency Operation Center has made a three-phased compulsory evacuation plan for Hualien County’s Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) disaster zone ahead of the potential formation of a typhoon, center chief coordinator Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) said today.
The plan includes compulsory vertical evacuation using air-raid-style alarms if needed, Chi told a news conference in Hualien County.
Volunteers would be prohibited from entering the disaster area starting on Saturday, he said.
Photo: Liu Jen-wei, Taipei Times
The first phase would be relocating vulnerable residents, including the elderly, the disabled, pregnant women and dialysis patients, in shelters and hospitals, he said.
The second phase would be mandatory evacuation of residents living in single-story houses, he said.
The third phase would be advising residents in homes with two or more stories to perform vertical evacuation, which means sheltering on an upper floor, he said.
The first two phases of evacuations are to begin when 24-hour cumulative rainfall hits 200mm, he said.
The third phase would begin when water levels in the Mataian River’s barrier lake reach 1m, he said, adding that air-raid-style alarms would be used to inform residents to perform vertical evacuation.
He urged all residents to prepare emergency kits with medications and personal essentials for survival.
Residents would be warned four hours before the mandatory evacuation begins, and those who refuse to leave after being advised to do so would face penalties, he said.
To ensure compliance, five-member oversight teams — comprising village heads, Hualien County officials, central government observers, police and firefighters — would travel by motorcycles to conduct door-to-door checks and advise every household during each phase of the evacuation, Chi said.
The total number of people to be evacuated is still being finalized by the local household registration office, he said.
The oversight teams would assist village leaders beginning today in confirming the actual number of residents and their planned method of evacuation, he said.
For the Mataian River, he said embankments on both sides have been raised to 5m, with sandbags deployed at potential overflow points.
Downstream dredging has been intensified to channel water and prevent flooding in low-lying areas, he added.
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