->For the upcoming training, mobilization, and international cooperative exercise in line with the National Disaster Preparedness Day, Minister LIU Shyh-fang highlighted the aim of integrating the capacities of the government, the civil society, and the int

Today (on 2024/09/12), the Ministry of Interior (MOI) briefed on "Strengthening the training, mobilization, and international cooperative exercise in line with the National Disaster Preparedness Day" to the Executive Yuan Council. As per Minister LIU Shyh-fang, the main event, i.e. the exercise on large-scale earthquake relief and mobilization, is to be conducted on 2024/09/18, which also incorporates activities such as drill on diverse transmission of earthquake and tsunami warning messages, reflection on the 25th anniversary of the 921 Earthquake, etc., to enhance the effectiveness of national disaster prevention and protection as well as the awareness of all-out disaster prevention.

Further emphasized by Minister LIU, this year, activities for the National Disaster Preparedness Day are expanded into a series of disaster prevention activities during the month of National Disaster Preparedness Day. On 2024/09/01, a kick-off press conference hosted by Premier CHO Jung-tai of the Executive Yuan launched the series of disaster prevention activities and publicity campaigns throughout the month of National Disaster Preparedness, including activities such as earthquake evacuation drills for populaces and schools, mock quizzes to test the populaces’ knowledge on disaster prevention, setups of special disaster prevention zones in physical and online marketplaces, expanding the Disaster Relief Volunteer (DRV) training within public and private sectors, cultivation of Taiwan Community Emergency Response Teams (T-CERTs), the charter flight drill for mobilization of national search and rescue teams, and especially on 2024/09/18 an exercise on large-scale earthquake relief and mobilization. This large-scale exercise is expected to bring together 1,300+ person-times from the central and local governments, and the civil and international societies, aiming to exhaust various kinds of dynamic and static activities, publicity and training, drills and seminars, and to combine the capacities of the industry, the government, the academia, the civil society, and the international society, so as to collectively deepen the populaces’ disaster prevention awareness, knowledge, and vigilance, strengthen the disaster prevention and relief capabilities of the government and the civil society, and enhance the resilience and effectiveness in large-scale disaster responses.

In order to strengthen life rescue and pre-disaster preparedness for large-scale earthquakes, the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) has been formulating fire relief plans every year since 2018 based on the earthquake disaster scenarios with high probability of occurrence and heavy casualties as studied by National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). To this end, in line with the National Disaster Preparedness Day, numerous drills on large-scale earthquake relief and mobilization have been conducted over the years, including that in northern Taiwan (in 2018), central Taiwan (in 2019), southern Taiwan (in 2020), eastern Taiwan (in 2021 and 2022), Hsinchu area (in 2023), and Chiayi area (in 2024) on, so as to strengthen the response capabilities of various ministries/ councils and local governments in the face of large-scale earthquake disasters.

Pointed out by Minister LIU, this year’s (2024), in line with the National Disaster Preparedness Day, an exercise is to be conducted based on a simulated 7.3-magnitude earthquake striking 23.5 kilometers east of the Chiayi County Government in Zhuchi Township of Chiayi County, causing severe disasters in the Chiayi area. Accordingly, various ministries and councils of the central government along with Chiayi County Government and Chiayi City Government have planned to roll out various drills according to various scenarios of simulated disaster damage, including drills such as tabletop exercise (TTX), activation of disaster relief bases, control and command over life-saving, drills on emergency information transmission and emergency communications operations, drills on assessments, search, and rescue (ASR) operations, etc. Penghu County Government has also planned to conduct an air accident drill based on a simulated typhoon disaster, where the vessel PENGHU is to transport firefighting personnel and vehicles to support the air accident on the outlying island; an Air Force C-130H aircraft, a Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA’s) frigate, and Japan's PEACE WINDS are to be mobilized; and a Departure and Reception Center (DRC) is to be activated at Penghu Airport for international search and rescue teams. The large-scale disaster relief and support drill on the outlying island marks the first drill of its kind in Taiwan.

Explained by Minister LIU, with reference to "HSEEP" (Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program) of the United States, this exercise adopts the unscripted, semi-early warning approach to simulate real disasters, where the exercise is to be rolled out according to various event scenarios announced on the spot. Through such a drill approach close to actual disaster situations, the exercise not only enables domestic disaster relief units to familiarize themselves with the disaster relief procedures for large-scale earthquakes, but also allows them to verify the "interoperability" of cross-unit and multi-organizational collaborative operations, and to practice coordinated disaster relief with international search and rescue teams with strengthened tacit cooperation, thus smoothing future practical support operations with international search and rescue teams.

As per the Ministry of the Interior (MOI), during the series of drills, at a drill site located in the parking lot on the north side of the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum in Chiayi County, multiple new disaster relief technologies and the resilience in technological achievements are to be showcased, including energy storage devices of power supply for disaster relief, dynamic and static displays of drones and firefighting robots, aerial communications base stations, response network mobile vehicles from the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA), practical operations of the Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) system, and the wireless Mobile Ad-Hoc Network (MANET - MPU5, Sector Antenna), just to name a few. In addition, a demonstration Taiwan Community Emergency Response Team (T-CERT), trained by the National Fire Agency (NFA), from Budai Port of Chiayi County is to demonstrate self-rescue and mutual rescue operations on-site. Moreover, FORWARD ALLIANCE (an association legal person) and SPIRIT OF AMERICA (a civil society organization) are to participate in this exercise on-site, demonstrating the capacity of civil forces in disaster relief.

Specially reminded by Minister LIU, at 09:21 on 2024/09/20, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) is going to send a "national warning" message to people across the country in line with the simulated earthquake. Upon receiving the earthquake warning sounds and text messages on their mobile phones, the people across the country are requested to cooperatively practice the 3-step life-saving approach amid the simulated earthquake, namely the three stops of "Drop, Cover, and Hold on". At 10:00 on 2024/09/20, a tsunami warning is to be issued to people along the coast via the cellular broadcast system (CBS) for disaster prevention warning and the air defense warning system. From 10:59 to 11:11 on 2024/09/20, call cable TV stations are to automatically switch to Taiwan Public Television Service (Channel #13) to simultaneously broadcast disaster prevention messages. Through drills on issuance of disaster messages and warnings via diverse channels, and channel switching, the populaces are ensured to receive disaster emergency messages from different channels.

As reported by the National Fire Agency (NFA), this year (2024), in line with the National Disaster Preparedness Day and the 25th anniversary of the 921 Earthquake, numerous events have also been planned, including an academic seminar on 2024/09/13 and 2024/09/14 hosted by the ACADEMIA SINICA to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 921 Earthquake striking the Jiji area; an international seminar on 2024/09/18 hosted by the National Fire Agency (NFA) on disaster prevention and protection and humanitarian assistance, and an international forum on 2024/09/21 hosted by the NFA and co-hosted by the NEWHOMELAND FOUNDATION on Taiwan and Japan’s post-earthquake community reconstruction.

At last, appealed by Minister LIU, due to lack of pre-warning of threat of large-scale earthquakes, the populaces were requested to pay attention to various disaster prevention information, secure furniture in place, prepare food and drinking water at least for three (3) days, and learn the location of nearby evacuation shelters. In case of a large-scale earthquake, all should immediately take self-protection measures such as "Drop, Cover, and Hold on". After the earthquake, be mindful for turning off the fire source and checking the condition of the premises. For any serious damage such as the building tilt or steel beam exposure, be sure to immediately turn off the electricity and vacate from the premises, go to a friend and family’s place or an evacuation shelter, and notify the construction/ building management unit of the local government to dispatch professionals for emergency evaluation to minimize the damage.