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The GEO Emergency
Control Centre
Introduction
The
GEO maintains a 24-hour, year-round service to provide geotechnical
advice to Government Departments on actions to be taken in
case of danger arising from landslides. The service includes
advice on closure of roads, evacuation of buildings, and urgent
slope repair works. The primary objective of the emergency
service is to protect the general public from landslide hazards
and to assist Government Departments to restore services to
the public which have been disrupted by landslides.
GEO
Emergency Service
The
GEO deploys its Geotechnical Engineers (GEs) to provide technical
advice to other Departments in dealing with landslide related
emergencies. However, the GEO is not a disciplined service
with local offices throughout Hong Kong. The emergency service
it provides, particularly in regard to response time, should
not be compared with that of the Police or the Fire Services
Department.
During
office hours, the District Divisions of the GEO handle requests
for emergency service from other Departments. Emergency service
outside office hours is normally provided through a radio
pager system. The pagers are carried by GEs who respond to
calls for advice from other Government Departments.
Where
a high demand for emergency service is anticipated, such as
when a Landslip Warning or typhoon signal number 8 or above
has been issued, the Emergency Control Centre (ECC) in the
Civil Engineering and Development Building at Homantin will
be in operation, which is manned by 13 emergency teams on
a rotational basis, working in approximately 8-hour shifts.
The team controller of the ECC (a Senior Geotechnical Engineer)
receives all landslide reports, and despatches GEs promptly
to landslide sites to provide necessary advice to other Government
Departments. More senior GEO staff are available on call to
give advice to GEs in dealing with diffuicult or serious cases.
Continuous Improvements
GEO is committed to developing its emergency system to cater
for all possible landslide emergency situations. Equipment
and IT capabilities are continuously enhanced and operational
procedures streamlined to improve efficiency. Intensive training
and drills are organized on a regular basis for all staff
involved. De-briefing sessions are arranged to review lessons
learnt from actual emergency operations. In the spirit of
a continuous improvement, GEO regularly undertakes improvement
initiatives to gear up its emergency system to meet challenges. |