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The Islands District Office today (April 23) conducted a briefing in Tai O for local residents and village representatives on the government's emergency response plan in the event of imminent serious flooding in Tai O.
Representatives from the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), Drainage Services Department, Fire Services Department (FSD) and the Police were also present at the briefing held at the Tai O Rural Committee office.
Residents learnt that a flood alerting system would be activated when HKO forecast serious flood. HKO would issue a storm surge alert to relevant departments/parties and village representatives by SMS.
"Under the plan, upon receipt of the alert, relevant government departments would mobilise their resources for any possible evacuation and relief efforts while village representatives would help disseminate the information so that residents could be well prepared for the flood and take refuge in safer locations," an Islands District Office spokesman said.
Before the arrival of the flood, members of the Police, FSD and Civil Aid Service would also help evacuate affected residents to temporary shelters or safer locations, the spokesman added.
Today, FSD personnel also briefed the local residents on how they should prepare for the flood and introduced them guidelines on "dos and don'ts" of a serious flood.
Ends/Thursday, April 23, 2009
Issued at HKT 19:29
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