Hong Kong should only use emergency warning system for ‘tsunami or earthquakes’, not rainstorms and typhoons: environment chief
- Tse Chin-wan says emergency alert system that sends real-time notifications to mobile phone users should be reserved for events such as tsunami or earthquakes
- Hong Kong Observatory in early stages of introducing artificial intelligence technologies to further improve forecasting ability, he adds
Hong Kong’s emergency alert system is reserved for informing the public of events such as tsunami or earthquakes, the environment chief has said after a lawmaker asked whether it could be used to notify residents of intense rainstorms and typhoons.
Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan on Wednesday also said the Hong Kong Observatory had started using artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to further improve its forecasting ability.
Legislative Council finance committee chairman and lawmaker Ronick Chan Chun-ying asked whether the government would consider using the system to warn of extreme weather events, similar to the “once-in-500-years” rainstorm that inundated the city in early September.
“For future emergency alerts, we will make use of the system, say when there is a tsunami or earthquake,” Tse said. “For information disseminated through normal channels or platforms, we won’t make use of the alert system.”
The emergency alert system, launched in November 2020, sends important real-time notifications to mobile phone users across the city. It was first used in 2022 to notify residents that Queen Elizabeth Hospital had been turned into a designated treatment site for Covid-19 patients.