The Government strongly condemns all baseless and irresponsible comments on the Internet criticising typhoon relief efforts by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Macao Garrison, said today the Government Spokesperson, Mr Chan Chi Ping.
The Judiciary Police had initiated investigation of such comments. Internet users should not spread such rumours, stated the Commissioner-General of the Unitary Police Service, Mr Ma Io Kun, who also commands the city’s coordinated relief effort.
The issues were raised during a press briefing on Saturday (26 August) held by the Civil Protection Action Centre and public departments involved in the recovery work post-Typhoon Hato.
The Government also announced the cancellation, with effect from Saturday, of a number of Government-organised festive, cultural, recreational and exchange-related activities, in order to concentrate resources to handle the aftermath of Typhoon Hato.
As of 3pm on Saturday, the Centre had recorded a total of 876 incidents across Macao and the Islands (Taipa and Coloane) linked to Typhoon Hato. The death toll remained at 10 (eight males and two females) and a further 244 people were reported injured.
The Fire Services have concluded search and rescue work in the car park at the Grandeur Heights building in Patane and no one was found trapped in the previously-flooded area. The Fire Services will continue to search other venues with flooding problems.
The Government is paying close attention to the development of the approaching tropical storm “Pakhar” and its possible effect on local weather conditions. The Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau said the current likelihood of Tropical Cyclone Signal No. 8 being hoisted was between 40 percent to 60 percent. Should it be necessary to hoist Signal No. 8, it was likely to be during either the early hours of Sunday or Sunday morning proper. This was on the basis of the current predicted path of “Pakhar”. The Bureau estimated currently that the likelihood of a signal higher than No.8 being hoisted was below 20 percent.
Regarding debris removal after the typhoon, the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau had collected – in the first 12 hours of Saturday – some 1,620 tonnes of waste from the city’s streets; some 2,600 tonnes were collected yesterday.
Despite continued support from the PLA Macao Garrison to clean up debris from streets – together with the round-the-clock effort from police officers, Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau staff and volunteers – the city still faces a severe challenge to remove the large quantity of waste from the streets.
In view of the possible impact of the approaching new typhoon, the city needs to seize the opportunity to clean up existing obstacles from streets. Members of the public are urged to deposit large items of waste at the 40 newly-added collection points.
Water supply to most areas across the city was generally stable as of Saturday afternoon. However, the Government has been working diligently to resolve the interruption to water supply experienced in some areas that is due either to low water pressure or to the fact that pumping facilities in some residential buildings were damaged by Typhoon Hato.
The Macao SAR Government has been given access to 20 water supply vehicles from the Guangdong Government in order to increase across the city the number of temporary supply points for water. This is in addition to the 20 venues temporarily supplying water that have been set up by the city’s water utility company.
Shower facilities and changing rooms at four public swimming pools was open Saturday and will be again today for the public to use.
Regarding electrical power supply, the city’s public electricity grid resumed normal operations in the afternoon, after repairs to damaged substations were completed. Macao’s electric utility company will step up its efforts regarding repair of streetlights, with the expectation that most public areas should in the short term have at least basic illumination.
Around 90 percent of the city’s road network had reopened to traffic and all boundary checkpoints were maintaining normal operations. Of the 80 sets of traffic lights across the city that were damaged during the typhoon, 15 sets are still in the process of being repaired by the Public Security Police Force. It will deploy more officers to direct traffic at junctions where traffic lights are not yet functioning. Members of the public are urged to avoid travelling by road at present, so as to ease the pressure of traffic and improve access for those removing debris from the streets.
The Macao Foundation has simplified the application process for housing repair subsidy and has extended the scheme in order to cover temporary reinforcement work. As of 4pm on Saturday, the Foundation had received 1,600 applications for housing repair subsidy and some 200 applications for medical subsidy.
The Macao Economic Services launched two subsidy programmes to assist local small- and medium-sized enterprises negatively affected by the typhoon. As of 4pm on Saturday, more than 1,300 firms had registered for business-related subsidies.