Here’s what to know about Wan’an Air Raid Drill on Wednesday

Due to the pandemic, this year’s Wan’an Air Raid Drill (萬安演習) is taking place on Wednesday with a few new regulations making it easier for new immigrants to comply and understand the exercise’s purpose.

To help new immigrants better know what’s going on, police departments in Taichung City issued posters and videos in six languages explaining what will happen during the drill.

This year marks the 44th Wan’an Drill and will occur on Sept. 15 from 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The 30-minute exercise will include the sounding of an air raid siren as well as text messages sent through a government account to all citizens’ phones, alerting them of the drill.

However, in cooperation with epidemic-prevention measures set in place by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC, 中央流行疫情指揮中心), large gatherings are to be avoided.

This means that this year, there will be no crowd or vehicle control, and citizens won’t be asked to evacuate into buildings during the drill.

The Chiayi Police Department also released short, informative video clips to help new immigrants during the drill.

The Chiayi Police Department also filmed short videos in six languages in the hopes that more new immigrants can be informed of the drill. All videos are accessible through Facebook.

Meanwhile, the Taichung Police Department also designed posters in Chinese, English, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese and Indonesian.

The Taichung Police Department also listed five steps to do should an air raid actually occurs.

First, you must prepare an “emergency bag” which should include your personal IDs, valuables, drinkable water, dried snacks, emergency aid kits, warm clothes, cell phone, radio, and illumination devices.

Second, upon hearing air raid warning, you should find shelter that can protect you from flying debris and radiation. Also, if there are solid concrete structures around you, you should take shelter immediately and keep your body as low as possible.

Third, you should avoid “dangerous areas.” Metropolitan areas, high-rise areas, buildings with glass facades, and the upper floors of buildings may be in direct contact with the explosion wave should an air raid occur, making them very dangerous.

Therefore, you should immediately take refuge on the lower floors, and do not take the elevator. If your home is not an apartment, the house may collapse. You should then position yourself on the second floor or above, and take refuge in bathrooms and other relatively safe places.

Fourth, the correct position when faced with an air raid is to have your back face the window and crouch down with your back slightly arched.

Your chest should avoid direct contact with the floor and you should cover your eyes with a cloth, while keeping your lips slightly parted.

Lastly, you should head to the nearest refuge center to seek shelter with others.

The Taichung City Department released posters in six languages to help new immigrants better understand what to do.

The public can be informed of the location of the surrounding air defense evacuation facilities through their cell phones, and the Police Department of the Ministry of Interior (MOI, 內政部) has set up nationwide evacuation locations on their official APP, so users can look up evacuation sites on the Google My Maps link inquiry system.

In addition, the city police department has set up an evacuation section in the “Taichung Police APP” and the official LINE account (ID: @tcpb), which can instantly display the evacuation sites around Taichung City through cell phone GPS positioning, and guide the public to the nearest evacuation site.

Aside from the above, people who need multilingual translations can click here to get the Wan’an Air Raid Drill multilingual e-notice.