Lessons from hailstorm in Dongguan

Nine people were killed and 272 people injured in a severe hailstorm that hit Dongguan in Guangdong province on March 20.

The local authorities should draw lessons from such natural disasters, says an article of Beijing News. Excerpt:

The hailstorm started hitting Fujian, Hunan and Guangdong on March 19.

Even though the local government had issued three severe weather warnings in Dongguan, many people still failed to take them seriously.

Even if they had, many people still did not know how to escape from, or protect themselves from, such extreme weather conditions.

In Beijing, extreme weather precautions are made using various media: mobile phone text messages, TV, radio and the Internet.

The information is provided by the municipal government free of charge.

Yet, it costs 2 yuan (about $0.35) in Dongguan each month to register for extreme weather warnings.

Dongguan and the other municipal governments in the country should make this information service free.

But the other issue is letting people know what to do in cases of extreme weather conditions.

Governments, schools and media should raise awareness of the need for relevant training.

As extreme weather becomes more frequent, the harsh lessons of Dongguan have again set off alarm bells for both government and society.