Shanghai updates emergency response alerts with more information

Additional essential information, such as temporary changes and suspensions of high-speed railway, Metro services and airline services, will be brought into Shanghai's emergency warning system, the city's emergency response official said in a radio program on Tuesday.

Ma Jianhong, director general of the Shanghai Emergency Management Bureau, said that Shanghai is optimizing its measures on its emergency warning system.

The measure will focus more on the specific impacts the warnings triggered.

"We used to tell residents about emergency situations like wind force, precipitation, and cold waves," Ma said in the radio show. "But we hardly mentioned real impacts on daily life."

He said in the future, more detailed information, such as the adjustments of high-speed railway services, flight services, and Metro services, will be updated along with the warning alerts.

In addition, the city will integrate all the emergency information which may be issued by various departments in city and released through one united warning platform. It will allow residents to quickly and conveniently obtain these notifications, Ma said.

Shanghai is bracing for a summer with more high-temperature days, more rain, more heavy convective weather and more typhoons, Ma said.

"The increase of extreme weather, such as strong winds, high temperatures, rainstorms, thunderstorms and lightning, will likely have negative impact on the operation of chemical equipment and the storage of hazardous chemicals," Ma said

He reminded local companies to pay close attention to weather changes in the upcoming summer, and always be fully prepared.

Apart from the extreme weather, Ma said the city has seen an increase of fire accidents in the first quarter.

Among all the fires in residential compounds, about 65.63 percent of fatalities were elderly residents over 60 years of age.

And there is a clear upward trend in the number of fires in factories, warehouses, construction sites, and other related areas.

"We will strengthen the administration in specific fields, such as electric bikes, factory warehouses, construction sites, small stores, fuel or flammable chemical storage sites, as well as other relevant fields," Ma stressed.