Civil Protection meets ahead of typhoon season

The members of the Civil Protection structure have assembled to start the relevant preparatory work for the typhoon season of 2020, which begins this month.
The meeting, held at the Pac On Immigration Building where the headquarters of the structure is located, was attended by the representatives of the 30 public entities that are part of this structure and addressed several topics related to the prevention work done in previous years and work that can be done for this year.
At the event, Commander Leong Man Cheong from the Unitary Police Service noted that the Meteorological and Geophysics Bureau forecast expects Macau to be affected by four to six tropical storms this year, with some of them expected to be severe.
Such acknowledgment also led Leong to announce that after considering the current epidemic situation, it was decided that “Crystal Fish 2020,” the code name given to annual drills related to typhoons, will take place until the end of June.
The operation aims to test the response capacity of the involved security forces as well as their equipment, and to test their interdepartmental communication. It is designed to improve the response to such natural catastrophes.
Evaluating the work concluded and measures enforced since the occurrence of two major typhoons (Hato in 2017 and Mangkhut in 2018), Leong noted that expansion of the sound alert system for flooding and storm surge, the mechanism of suspension of the transportation service on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the increase in the number of shelters, as well as the enhancement of the command platform for the response to emergencies, tested for the first time during the passage of the tropical storm “Wipha” in 2019, were the most relevant measures.