By Xinhua
Beijing : Organisers of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have worked out contingency plans to deal with bad weather during the sporting extravaganza, an official said.
“We already had a scheme to cope with various weather conditions during the Games,” Yang Shu’an, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), told a press conference Wednesday.
At least six additional observation points have been set up around the Olympic Green, where a cluster of venues are located, and other Olympic-related sites for weather surveillance, said Yang.
“Weather forecast will be updated every three hours during the Games so that we can make timely decisions on whether the contingency plans should be activated,” he said.
China’s national meteorological bureau has promised extreme accuracy of weather forecasts during the Aug 8-24 sporting event, saying it would tell people when and where it was likely to rain while vague words like the rainfall probability are absolutely banned.
BOCOG’s precaution mechanism proved effective in last summer’s test events, said Yang.
“For example, we had a specific plan to deal with typhoon before the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong in August,” he said.
“And when the typhoon really hit Hong Kong on the event’s opening day, we immediately informed the spectators and participants about the rescheduling plans. Actually, we were glad to have the typhoon because it provides us a good opportunity to test our readiness to deal with contingencies.”