Police updates typhoon evacuation plans for low-lying areas

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Macau (MNA) – Following lessons learned during last year’s Typhoon Mangkhut, the Director of the Judiciary Police (PJ), Sit Chong Meng, presented on Saturday some of the changes and updates made by the Unitary Police Service (SPU) in evacuation plans for instances of storm surges during typhoons.

“During the typhoon season we will have an evacuation plan coordinated by SPU. Macau will be divided in five sectors with PJ being responsible for sector C, which will cover the area between Ponte 16 and NAPE. Sector C will also be subdivided in nine sub-sections, with 20 officers responsible for enforcing the evacuation plan in each sub-section ,” the Director stated today.

The PJ Director made the comments during an event held at the activity centre of the S. Domingos Market to inform local residents on how to proceed in case of flooding.

About 2,600 stores were said to be located in this sector C with one tenth said to be located in higher risk areas.

The new evacuation plan will only be put in action during a typhoon or storm surge, and only in low-lying areas of the city, with a drill to be conducted before the typhoon is set to hit the city.

According to Mr. Sit, authorities made some changes to the evacuation plans enforced last year during Typhoon Mangkhut, while residents were said to now be more aware of the correct procedures to have in such instances.

” We invited firefighters to train our officers, with some 144 PJ officers having already received first-aid training […]. We also learned we needed more equipment we bought two jeeps that can be used in flood conditions to transport residents from their houses,” he stated.

Some 240 officers are expected to be trained for first-aid assistance by June of this year

Columns indicating the height of flooding associated to each level of storm surge alerts will also be placed in low-lying areas so residents can quickly know the degree of flooding.

About 20 awareness campaigns for residents were also said to have been conducted with the help of neighbourhood associations and schools.

Last year a case of an elderly resident refusing to leave her residence when asked by authorities during Typhoon Mangkhut was reported but with the PJ Director stating he does not believe similar cases will happen this year since residents are now more aware of what to do in flooding emergencies.

Awareness activity for S. Domingos residents