Taipei is running a full-scale disaster response drill on August 21, and people in parts of the city will get emergency phone alerts that are only a test — no cause for alarm.

• The drill runs from 8am to 5pm across five sites, including the city's emergency response center, National Defense Medical Center, Nangang High School, an army camp, and Rongxing Garden Park.
• Test alerts will hit phones at 8am near the response center and 10am near the medical center.
• Some streets will be closed and evacuation drills will run, so people nearby should follow the marshals on the ground.
• The setup is meant to mirror real conditions — real people, real sites, real equipment — as the city preps for extreme weather and overlapping disasters.

Outlook: Expect brief traffic snarls and a wave of alarming-looking phone alerts on Friday morning, all of them part of the exercise.