Some Guangzhou citizens reported feeling tremors, following the earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province. The Guangzhou Metro Company performed an emergency investigation of the bridges and tunnels along the four metro lines in service and found no impact.

According to Zeng Yaochang, Geologist and Vice Chief Engineer of the Guangzhou Metro Company, the earthquake preparedness of the metro design required by Guangzhou City was to "withstand earthquake intensities of magnitude 7".

Every line of the Guangzhou Metro would have an earthquake disaster evaluation by the Seismological Bureau of Guangdong Province before construction, through which Guangzhou Metro would estimate the possible occurrence of an earthquake along the line.

At present, the Guangzhou Metro has completed the earthquake disaster evaluation over the right lines of Metro Lines 1 to 6, the Guangzhou-Foshan Line and the Automated Passenger Mover Operations in Zhujiang New City. No active ruptures have been found around the metro so far, in another word, there was no possibility for an earthquake to take place found.

Zeng introduced that in response to possible disaster weather, the Guangzhou Metro has formulated Emergency Plans for Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters, which cover three levels of earthquake plans.

In case of disaster weather, the Guangzhou Metro Company would launch different emergency plans accordingly to safeguard the personal safety of the passengers and the operation safety of the metro lines.

In addition, the stations of Guangzhou Metro were all designed according to the flood prevention requirements for the flood occurred in two hundred years.

The power supply of Metro Line 4 adopts a third rail power supply, which secures the skyborne touching net by the rail and close to the ground so as to avoid the occurrence of the break of the touching net caused by typhoons.

The Metro Line 4 was designed to be able to withstand a 7th Grade typhoon.

Editor: Yan