->As the typhoon season approaches, Minister LIU of the Interior directs the National Fire Agency (NFA) to enhance disaster prevention and protection capacity with the latest technology.

It is now the typhoon season, and the typhoon season is about to ensue hereinafter. On 2024/06/17, Minister of the Interior LIU Shi-Fang visited the Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC), the National Rescue Command Center (NRCC) of the Executive Yuan, and the National Search and Rescue Coordination Center (NSARCC) of the National Fire Agency (NFA) to understand the disaster preparedness status, while instructing the NFA to continue to use the latest technology to enhance disaster prevention and protection capacity.

According to Minister LIU, long-standing outstanding performance of the Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC), the National Rescue Command Center (NRCC) of the Executive Yuan, and the National Search and Rescue Coordination Center (NSARCC) of the National Fire Agency (NFA) has been highly recognized by the Taiwanese people. In recent years, the abovementioned centers have also been invited by other countries for exchanges and cooperation. LIU expressed her most sincere gratitude to all colleagues who have worked hard.

As per Minister LIU, in order to pursue better disaster prevention and response capabilities, current AI and drone technologies should be fully utilized, including the Emergency Management Information Cloud (“EMIC 2.0”) that strengthens the information security and resilience redundant mechanism of the Emergency Operations Center (CEOC); the Relatives and Friends Search Interface which could be more user-friendly for foreigners; the Police Affairs Service APP along with Google Maps under the cooperation with Google to display nearby evacuation shelters thus facilitating online inquiries by the public. Meanwhile, the accuracy of the disaster relief information from various sources of various ministries and local governments was ensured to enhance the handling effectiveness of the emergency operations centers (EOCs).

When visiting the National Rescue Command Center (NRCC) of the Executive Yuan, and the National Search and Rescue Coordination Center (NSARCC) of the National Fire Agency (NFA), Minister LIU of the MOI reminded fire service personnel to pay special attention to their own safety when performing rescue missions in mountainous areas, and especially to make good use of satellite communications or positioning equipment (e.g. Garmin Inreach) to facilitate the status control of ground commanders. Meanwhile, there shall be cooperative mechanisms with the competent authorities in the mountain area to meet the requirements of the populace for satellites communications or positioning in the mountain area; meanwhile, guidance shall be provided to implement mountaineering stay-behind mechanism and the private third-party mountaineering stay-behind collaboration platform, so as to facilitate the rescue in case of an accident.

Minister LIU was concerned about the improvement of safety during disaster relief at the fire scene, who instructed the NFA to continue to evaluate the use of the Chemical Cloud of the Ministry of Environment (MOE) and the “Buildings’ Public Safety Standards Inspection and Reporting Management System” of the National Land Management Agency (NLMA) to provide front-line firefighting colleagues with effective disaster relief information. Meanwhile, a drone image management platform has been deployed to quickly to speedily identify and search for people in need of rescue using AI images. Furthermore, Minister LIU hoped that in the future, drones can be planned to collect on-site microclimate such as temperature, altitude, wind speed, etc., and to transmit such information back to the system database for analysis of the weather and accurate performance effectiveness, thus enhancing the overall search and rescue effectiveness.

As emphasized by Minister LIU, the NFA has requested local governments to conduct pre-flood-period investigations which showed a total of 14 counties (cities) and 193 areas prone to become isolated islands. Accordingly, prior inventory-taking shall be conducted in various areas in advance on key items such as evacuation shelters, food and drinking water reserves, emergency communications equipment, machines for rush repairs of roads, aprons for helicopter landing and take-offs, sites for airdropping materials, self-defense grouping for disaster prevention and prevention, and trainings on disaster prevention and protection, so as to ensure the preparedness work for disaster prevention and protection.