Premier Simon Chang said Tuesday that a large-scale disaster prevention drill will be held this year for the first time, as decided last week at a disaster relief meeting.
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake in southern Taiwan has cost 117 lives in Tainan City, including 115 victims in a single apartment complex located in the city’s Yongkang District.
During an interpellation session Tuesday, Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Chiang Nai-hsin questioned Chang about the nation’s disaster prevention and response operation plan, which prompted a response from Chang that a large-scale earthquake disaster prevention drill will be conducted this year.
Chang noted that all elementary and junior high schools nationwide carry out small-scale earthquake drills annually. After a disaster relief meeting between heads of departments last week, it was decided that the planning of a large-scale disaster prevention drill will be listed on the to-do list for the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) this year, especially in terms of improving disaster prevention mechanism and mitigation planning.
In addition, Chang proposed to move the NCREE meeting up to late February or March, as opposed to May as originally planned.
First large-scale disaster prevention drill to be held this year: Premier
