The 9th River Management Office of the Water Resources Agency strengthened the effectiveness of joint central and local disaster prevention, and held a joint river and coastal flood control exercise with the Ji'an Township Office on the 16th. In this pioneering simulated epidemic situation, the response and emergency work were carried out normally and efficiently with reduced contact of the disaster prevention and the response staff. Three locations—the Contingency Centers of Ji'an Township Office, 9th River Management Office and Ren'an Village's Huilan Square—were chosen especially for the joint video-link-cum-field maneuver. The commander scheduled tasks by video link. The teams carried out emergency rescue operations in the event of a typhoon, mobilizing more than 150 people. It was intensive and realistic.
Several scenarios, including those before, during and after the typhoon, were practiced as part of the exercise, which was based on the fictitious event of a typhoon making landfall on the coast of Hualien. Before the typhoon: disaster prevention promotion, shelter setup and materials preparation, flood prevention equipment stockpiling and pre-declaration. In the event of a typhoon: mandatory evacuation and shelter, evacuation of people in the disaster investigation waters and rescue of stranded people, drill of lifting tripod blocks, drill of waterproofing baffles and sandbag piling, drill of water pumping, salvage of maintenance pipelines, road closure and gravel buried road base removal drill. After the typhoon: lifting road closure and recovery after the disaster. There were 14 kinds of scenarios and the disaster prevention and response capability were strengthened through practical field maneuver drills.
Commissioner for the 9th River Management Office, Ming-Chang Hsieh, said that there is no room for error in disaster prevention. Through the drills, flood control personnel were able to become more familiar with the response procedures and find out if there were any areas that were not considered or needed to be improved through the drills. In order to enhance cross-agency coordination and flood control efficiency, the exercise utilized the intelligent river management platform of the 9th River Management Office to implement intelligent disaster prevention. Flood control supplies and horizontal support for the lifting of the tripod blocks were also added to strengthen the vertical and horizontal linkage of the disaster relief mechanism and increase disaster relief capability and efficiency. Flood control preparations must be double-checked and the 9th River Management Office has pre-planned the activation mechanism for each situation. In addition, the exercise was conducted in cooperation with the Community Development Association, the Flood Disaster Prevention Community, the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Health Center, the Hualien District Sales Office of Taipower, the 9th District Management Office of Taiwan Water Corporation, the Hualien Operation Center of Chunghwa Telecom and the Flood Prevention and Water Protection Volunteers. It is believed that this will effectively enhance the community's ability to prevent and respond to disasters on their own. The public-private partnership will help to overcome the challenges of the flood season.
As the flood season is approaching, the 9th River Management Office once again reminded people to clean up the water outlet on the balcony of their homes and dredge the drainage ditch before a heavy rain to reduce the risk of flooding. People are advised to avoid activities in mountainous areas and at streams, as they should be cautious of landslides, rockfalls and stream flooding. Residents in low-lying areas are urged to be vigilant and to keep an eye on early warning messages through the Water Resources Agency's Water Level App and to cooperate with relevant units to evacuate, if necessary, in order to avoid and mitigate disasters.