A sudden storm started at 4 pm on July 10 and lasted three hours in the downtown area of Beijing left a big number of road sections severely waterlogged and paralyzed a large part of the city's traffic. The fact that a short-time storm could cause such damage reveled defects in the city construction, loopholes in emergency and anti-disaster mechanism and relatively low-level city management.

Warn 1. A city's anti-disaster system should firstly enhance prevention awareness and the emergency system should firstly focus on early-warning. Saturday's storm was forecasted but, unfortunately, related departments as city administration, transportation and anti-flood failed to take forceful measures beforehand to drain water and relieve traffic jams, nor did they warn the public through media to change plants of out-going.

Warn 2. Anti-disaster and emergency is a systematic project that needs close coordination of all sides. A heavy snow fell on December 7 2001 almost paralyzed traffic of the whole city. After that the municipal government drew lessons from that and adopted a serious of strong measures, which turned out quite effective in later heavy snows. As early as that time experts suggested the construction of an effective, comprehensive emergency reaction system against both natural disasters as strong wind and snow, storm, sandstorm as well as man-made disasters such as sudden outbreak of infectious diseases. But the problems revealed during Saturday's storm again proved the capital's weak anti-disaster capacity.

Warn 3. The government should develop the notion that "crisis is a normal condition" and bring emergency system into the city's daily management. Government at all levels should foster a batch of emergency-reaction experts and improve their working staff's quick reaction ability. Officials who fail to handle emergencies properly should be held responsible. Only in this way can the city set up an emergency mechanism featuring quick reaction, scientific organization and efficient operation.

The storm brings warning not only to the Beijing government but to local governments at all levels. The country is going through a rain season during which sudden disasters are frequent, so governments should check their loopholes so as to map out and effectively implement their emergency plans.

By People's Daily Online