National Taiwan University students and members of the environmentalist Green Party tie yellow ribbons on some of the ancient trees along Xuzhou Road in Taipei yesterday, a gesture to call attention to the preservation of the "Green Tunnel", as the urban shaded street is popularly known. CNA

TAIPEI: Mudslide risks will be taken into consideration when determining whether to close school and offices following natural disasters, the head of the Central Personnel Administration said yesterday.

City and county governments have the authority to announce school and office closures if mudslide warnings are issued as part of disaster preparedness for typhoons, floods or earthquakes, Wu Tai-cheng said during a question and answer session at the Legislative Yuan.

Wu said that in addition to wind strength, precipitation and earthquake intensity, mudslide predictions will also be used by local governments to decide whether to close schools and workplaces in the event of natural disasters.

"Within the next two weeks, the government will put forth regulations for school and office closures pertaining to mudslide risks," Wu promised.

Such announcements should be made by local governments as early as 7 pm and no later than 10 pm for the following day, and under special circumstances, no later than 5 am on the day when schools and offices should be closed, he said.

He said this was one of the decisions made at a meeting of the Central Personnel Administration, relevant agencies and local governments around Taiwan Wednesday to work out a new mechanism under which the local governments could have autonomy regarding class and office closures and could simultaneously inform the Executive Yuan of their decisions.

In the meantime, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) unveiled a plan yesterday to launch a dedicated weather channel to provide the public with direct access to meteorological information.

The bureau is currently working on a joint project with Chunghwa Telecom in the hope that the proposed free TV channel would be included in the company's multimedia-on-demand (MOD) service, said CWB Director-General Shin Tzay-chyn.

According to Shin, the CWB hopes to use the TV channel not only to provide weather forecasts and information on earthquakes and typhoons, but also to educate the public about natural phenomena in a fun and lively manner.

However, it is unlikely that the channel will be launched soon, as the CWB's existing workforce cannot yet produce enough programs to maintain the operation, Shin said.

As a warm-up to its TV venture, the CWB will strengthen its video cast service on its official website, he said.

The video cast will be presented more frequently and it will be expanded to include earthquake reports, in the addition to the weather forecasts that it currently streams online, he added.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 10/09/2009 page2)