Taipei, reported by Cheng, Yu-Chen

Ministry of National Defense accounted yesterday that the “Exercise for National Defensive Mobilization and Disaster Prevention and Rescue (Min An 1)” and “Wan An 38” exercise will take place at local administrations starting from Mar 17 in order to improve the mobilization for national defense and the performance of disaster prevention. These exercises are the combination of wargaming and hands-on practice to verify disaster contingency plans and mechanisms, evaluate the traffic control of people and vehicles during an air raid, and to ensure the safety of people’s life and properties.

The Ministry explained in a press conference yesterday how the “Exercise for National Defensive Mobilization and Disaster Prevention and Rescue (Min An 1)” and “Wan An 38” exercise will go down. General Yin, Jung-Yuan, director of National Defense Mobilization Office, MND, pointed out that the “Exercise for National Defensive Mobilization and Disaster Prevention and Rescue (Min An 1)” is developed to combine national defense mobilization and disaster prevention mechanisms, integrate the capacities of central and local governments, the military and civilian, support for disaster prevention and rescue and emergency response, and bring disaster prevention and rescue and homeland security on the same page. The exercises are scheduled from March to April (during flood season). The 22 municipalities, counties and cities in Taiwan are divided into 2 groups of 11 and every year one of the groups is rotated to participate in the exercise of wargaming and hands-on practice in these one-day events. The 3-in-in report (mobilization, disaster prevention and intelligence) of local governments is in charge or develop complex disaster prevention and rescue scenarios for earthquake, typhoon, flood and explosion and carry out disaster prevention and rescue drills depending on local disaster potentials and characteristics.

For the Min An exercise, General Yin indicated that the local governments will start the simulation of response efforts in the morning based on the scenarios designed for possible disasters. The magistrate of local government will host this exercise with the participation of the head of local government agencies, military, governmental and civilian institutes, charity and rescue groups in the attempt to improve their performance in disaster prevention and rescue mechanism. The afternoon session involves hands-on practice with the magistrate of local government as the commander to lead government agencies, local businesses, volunteer workers and military troops to carry on the drills and evaluate the feasibility of disaster prevention, rescue and response plans based on the subjects of wargaming and disaster scenarios developed.

The Wan An exercise is scheduled from March to May in northern, central, southern and eastern Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. It is carried out with air raid alarm deployed at different times. The exercise will last 30 minutes during daytime (from 1330 to 1400 hour). It consists of intelligence communications, alarm deployment, evacuation, disaster rescue, and drills involving traffic control, blackout and silence control. This exercise is executed to improve the citizens’ awareness of enemy invasion, familiarize with air defense actions, minimize losses to air raid and ensure the safety of life and properties.