Tainan is cooperating with the central government to hold the nation’s first civil defense resilience exercises on Thursday next week to test the nation’s emergency response capabilities, the Tainan City Government said today.
President William Lai (賴清德) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) are expected to travel to Tainan to oversee the exercises, reports said.
The exercises are to take place from 9am to 2pm at Tainan Municipal Nan-Ning Senior High School, teh Anping Port Visitors’ Center and the square across from the Tainan Yuping Post Office, the city government said.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government
This initiative was launched by the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Committee, which was established by the Presidential Office in June last year to enhance preparedness for large-scale disasters and the threats posed by authoritarian expansion, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) said.
The drills would simulate disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis or damage to critical infrastructure, testing the effectiveness of on-site disaster responses, Huang said.
The exercises are a collaboration between central and local governments, incorporating civilian participation, he said.
The goal is to strengthen national defense, public welfare, disaster prevention and democratic resilience, he added.
The committee conducted a tabletop exercise with relevant central government agencies and the Tainan City Government on Dec. 26 last year, Tainan Deputy Mayor Yeh Tse-shan (葉澤山) said.
It was decided then that Tainan would hold the Whole-of-Society Defense Resilience Field Exercises on Thursday next week, Yeh said.
Following the exercises, Tainan is to host the third meeting of the committee and a follow-up news conference, embodying Lai’s vision of an “action-oriented committee,” he said.
The exercises would verify disaster response capabilities through small-scale, on-site drills, Tainan City Government Secretary-General Fang Chin-cheng (方進呈) said.
They would test the ability of central and local governments to conduct large-scale evacuations, shelter and resettlement operations, and expand emergent medical facilities, Fang said.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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