Measures urged for potential flood disaster

The devastating flood of Aug. 8 caused by Typhoon Morakot last year has made these regions more fragile; roughly one-third of last year's rainfall could cause a disaster this year and so the government should prepare for a massive evacuation of up to 100,000 people residing in dangerous areas, warned Hsieh Cheng-lun, chief of the Disaster Prevention Research Center of National Cheng Kung University in Tainan City.

Before the Sep. 21 earthquake a decade ago, 400 millimeters (mm) of rainfall would have been enough to trigger mudslides in central Nantou; however, this level was reduced to 100mm a year later, Hsieh added.

Mudslides may hit the southern parts of the island in spring as a result of possible intense rainfalls this year and thus Hsieh was concerned that severer catastrophes could arise in the areas in Kaohsiung and Pingtung stricken by the flood as the destructive flooding has changed the landforms, raising the probability of landslides and mudslides.

Hsieh also urged the government to make preparations for a large-scale evacuation in the two counties, such as establishing refuge shelters, evacuation paths and food supplies in advance to effectively prevent major damage.

The Water Resources Agency is to dredge silt of a volume of 65 million cubic meters this year, a task requiring 3.25 million truck trips to complete.

Taipei established refuge shelters in its 12 administrative districts after being swept by Nari Typhoon in 2006; the evacuation sites are used as recreation parks at ordinary times, said Tsai Mao-yueh, chief of Taipei City Disaster Prevention and Rescue Center.

The 12 sites have a capacity for around 26,000 residents in total, along with storage room for food, clothes and drinking water; however, the problem was the public's unawareness of such places, Tsai added.

Existing public facilities, such as stadiums and schools, should act as refuge shelters in an emergency; constructing a new evacuation site seems too costly because such a structure would be useless at ordinary times, explained Jiang Yi-huah, Minister of the Interior (MOI).

The central government requires each local government to make thorough evacuation plans, looking for places such as school, stadiums and large temple buildings that can be utilized as evacuation sites, Jiang said.

The current standard demands a daily necessity supply of seven to 14 days. If necessary, a local government can ask for support from other cities or counties.

The current disaster prevention plans should be able to cope with large-scale destruction, however, further prevention proposals for extreme disasters are still under discussion, Jiang confessed.

In offshore Kinmen County, many evacuation sites such as underground channels and pillboxes were established in times of cross-strait military tensions; almost every household had its own bomb shelter at the time.

At present these places are mostly being used as wine storage for the locals, but they can still serve as evacuation sites if an emergency occurs.

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