Saturday’s drill to test the authorities’ capabilities of evacuating residents from low-lying neighbourhoods during a typhoon was successful, irrespective of the fact that the exercise’s outdoor activities involving volunteers needed to be suspended for safety reasons for two hours and 40 minutes because of a thunderstorm, Unitary Police Service (SPU) Commissioner-General Ma Io Kun said at the end of the exercise.
Ma said the authorities decided to suspend all the outdoor exercises of the “Crystal Fish” drill involving the volunteers during the period when the thunderstorm warning signal was up in order to ensure their safety.
Ma made the remarks about the interruption at the Civil Protection Operations Centre in Pac On in Taipa on Saturday afternoon – when the typhoon drill was being conducted across the city – in a press briefing.
The three photos provided by the Government Information Bureau (GCS) on Saturday show different aspects of this year’s “Crystal Fish” drill, such as participants being “evacuated” to an emergency shelter in Ilha Verde, customs officers “rescuing a man” from a simulated flooded area outside the Macau Customs Service headquarters using a newly-bought vehicle which can travel both on land and water, and two government public servants helping a senior citizen “evacuate” to an emergency shelter at an unidentified location.
Accompanied by senior officials under the government’s civil protection structure, Unitary Police Service (SPU) Commissioner-General Ma Io Kun (front), who coordinates the city’s civil protection work, briefs reporters at the Civil Protection Operations Centre in Pac On in Taipa about Saturday’s “Crystal Fish” typhoon drill. Photo: GCS
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