Urban resilience drills kick off in central Taiwan

Taipei, July 15 (CNA) Taiwan's urban resilience drills, featuring air raid alerts, public evacuation maneuvers, and disaster relief drills, kicked off Tuesday in the municipalities of central Taiwan.

These included Miaoli County, Taichung, Nantou County and Changhua County.

In these regions, air raid alerts sounded at 1:30 p.m., upon which traffic controls were implemented and operations at public and private venues were temporarily suspended until 2:00 p.m.

At intersections, police officers directed drivers to park their vehicles along the roadside to take refuge at nearby shelters.

After the air raid alerts were lifted at 2:00 p.m., war relief drills were conducted, such as rescue, on-site medical treatment and refugee transfer and accommodation exercises.

In Taichung, passengers alighting from the Taichung Metro were instructed to remain inside the station for shelter, while additional officers were deployed at crowded locations such as the National Taichung Theater to assist with public evacuation.

The city also conducted evacuation simulation drills at Qingshui train station, the Shalu District office and a hypermarket in Shalu.

A man visiting the district office told CNA that the drills help to prevent the public from panicking in case a real emergency occurred, while a man serving substitute military service said the experience was compelling.

Elsewhere in Changhua, over 2,500 police officers, civil defense personnel, and volunteer police were mobilized for the drill.

The county's Hemei, Xianxi and Shengang townships were chosen for expanded exercises.

Changhua County Magistrate Wang Hui-mei (王惠美) told the press that technology was introduced into the disaster prevention procedure at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, while emergency medical stations were simulated in the Hemei Senior High School to prepare for a potential war.

Meanwhile, in Nantou County, a rescue and evacuation drill in case of a bomb attack was conducted at the Chunghwa Telecom Company Nantou Operations Office.

Wang Jui-te (王瑞德), the deputy county magistrate of Nantou, said the exercises were necessary for minimizing losses in case of war.

The drills will be carried out in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County on Wednesday.

They will be conducted in Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Yilan, Keelung City, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County on Thursday, and in Hualien County, Taitung County and the outlying Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu islands on Friday.

While the drills will take place from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in eastern Taiwan and the outlying islands, they will be conducted from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. in other regions.

The drills were canceled in Tainan, Chiayi City, Chiayi County and Yunlin County, as those areas continue to recover from damage caused by Typhoon Danas, which hit southern Taiwan hard July 6 and 7.