Surviving crises
The memories of Meizhou residents often revolve around major floods. Zhan recalls a severe flood from around 1960. Wu Wenlong, the head of the community’s disaster response team, was a child at the time, but still vividly remembers carrying sandbags with the adults to try to hold back the rising water.
“In the old days, it could flood as high as the ceiling!” says Wu, pointing to a higher-than-normal first-story ceiling.
“Born to suffering,” locals have a heightened awareness of risk. In 2010, when the Water Resources Agency realized that public agencies couldn’t go it alone on disaster relief, and there was a need for local volunteer disaster response teams, it launched a community-based flood management program. Wu, who was Meizhou’s borough chief at the time, informed residents about the program and began actively seeking the community’s participation.
Harold Yih-chi Tan, an emeritus professor in the Department of Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering at National Taiwan University who advises Meizhou, explains that one of the keys to the success of the community’s disaster response team has been its organization.
The team acts as the community’s neighborhood watch in ordinary times, and then transforms into a response team when disaster strikes. Its 40-some members are organized into five groups, responsible for patrol and early warning, equipment preparation, evacuation and shelter, medical assistance, and preparedness and relief. They follow their commander’s orders and do their utmost to protect their community.
When a typhoon is on the way, the team gives an alert. If the Yilan City Office announces the establishment of a disaster response center, the team then immediately sets up its own command center.
Then, the equipment preparation group prepares vests, raingear, chainsaws, stretchers and other necessary items. The medical assistance group delivers necessities such as food, water and medicines to seniors who live alone and residents with chronic illnesses. The patrol and early warning group patrols every hour or two regardless of the bad weather to check for problems in flood-prone areas. The preparedness and relief group handles urgent repairs. And, if the situation calls for it, the evacuation and shelter group evacuates residents into a temporary shelter at the borough’s activity center.
This Meizhou disaster response map identifies temporary shelters at a local elementary school, temple and community center. (courtesy of the Meizhou disaster response team)