Emergency management strides ahead

Advance preparation

On Sept 13, the day the ministry received the report that Mangkhut had been upgraded to a super typhoon and would make landfall in three days, more than 20,000 firefighters from Guangdong and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region had already been dispatched to key areas that were expected to be affected.

Meanwhile, more than 3,600 rescuers from the fire brigades and work safety rescue teams in six provinces, including Zhejiang, Hubei and Hunan, were also ordered to stand by as reinforcements.

Disaster relief materials in warehouses overseen by the central government in four provincial regions were prepared to ensure timely transport of their materials to affected areas.

China has established a cross-ministry coordinating system for emergency response, said Guo, noting that it also involves the People's Liberation Army and government bodies such as the Ministry of Water Resources and China Meteorological Administration.

Under the system, joint consultations by all these government bodies will take place when natural disasters occur. For major disasters, the ministry will draft special emergency plans to ensure quick response, he added.