PARENTS COMPLAIN AS SOUTHERN OFFICIALS GIVE HALF DAY OFF|五縣市昨放半天颱風假 民眾怨聲載道

Indeed the decision is a tough one to make. If a typhoon day is announced and the weather turns out to be less stormy than expected, you are responsible for the loss of a day's economic output, yet if the weather is really bad and there's no DAY off, you risk the public's safety. Here's our comprehensive report. Facing strong wind, four elementary school students hid behind a utility pole. One tried to step forward, but failed. Chiayi City and County adopted the half-day-off policy, parents faced strong winds when picking up children from school. ==RESIDENT, CHIAYI== It's troublesome to have a half day off. People should either go to school or work for a whole day, or not at all. ==RESIDENT, Kaohsiung== You don't get much from going to school for a day, and that created more troubles than benefits. In southern Taiwan, only Pingtung County had a whole day off, other cities and counties adopted half-day-off policy. As rains and winds were getting harder, the facebook fans pages of city top officials also were getting harsh comments. ==CHEN CHU, Kaohsiung Mayor== We made the decision based on the data provided by the Weather Bureau. It certainly caused inconvenience to our citizens, we apologize for that. ==WILLIAM LAI, Tainan Mayor== We have so many citizens, it definitely caused inconvenience to our citizens. For this, I beg for their understanding. Should it be a whole day off before a typhoon makes landfall? How to obtain a balance point between the will of the citizens and professionalism? It has been a difficult issue for city's top officials. TRANSLATED BY：ANTHONY LIN 強風不斷吹，無法往前進，國小四位學童只好躲在電線桿後方，其中一人試圖離開，又被風吹回來。嘉義縣市下午停班停課，卻不時出現強陣風，家長奔波兩地接小孩，怨聲不斷。 ==嘉義民眾== 讀半天根本是很麻煩的一件事情 不然你就讀整天 不然就不要上班 ==高雄市民== 上課的效果不多 但是卻造成的麻煩比較大 不再是利大於弊 濁水溪以南縣市，除了屏東縣全天停班停課，其他縣市放半天颱風假，但放假時間風雨不斷增強，首長臉書被罵翻。 ==高雄市長 陳菊== 我們根據氣象局的資料 來做這樣的決定 當然造成很多市民朋友不方便 我們也覺得很抱歉 ==台南市長 賴清德== 有那麼多的市民 一定會有對市民造成不便 這一點我請大家能夠諒解 颱風假究竟該怎麼放？才能兼顧民意與專業，一再考驗地方首長的決策力。 記者 綜合報導