Urgent reconstruction

For more than half a century, the people of Khanh Hoa have never experienced such a terrible flood as this one. When the raging water receded, only mud and rubbish remained. Amidst the chaos, the provincial leaders and the entire political system continued to mobilize all resources, making many times more efforts, urgently rebuilding life.

Property swept away by the flood

As soon as the water receded, we arrived at the Ga Market area (West Nha Trang ward), which was considered the flood center because it was flooded more than 2m deep. Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai (Phu Tan street) stood still in front of her level 4 house, the wooden door had its hinges blown off, her eyes still filled with shock: "The flood has never been as bad as this year. Almost all of my family's assets have been swept away by the water: refrigerator, washing machine..., even a bag of rice that I just bought and haven't had time to use yet". Her husband kept pushing the thick layer of mud on the floor, smiling as if he was about to cry: "We have to start over. As long as we have health, we can still make money. The important thing is to quickly clean the house before the mud dries and hardens, so that the children have a place to study".

Students of the Information Officer School help clean up at Vinh Phuong 1 Kindergarten.

Throwing out heavy bags of clothes soaked with water, Mr. Nguyen The Vinh (a trader at Cho Ga Market) was absent-minded: "I knew this was a low-lying area, so when I saw heavy rain and flood warnings, I was worried about moving my goods up more than 1 meter. Unexpectedly, the water rose more than 2 meters, clothes, blankets, sheets, pillows, and mattresses were all submerged. My family has 2 stalls, and I just imported Tet goods early, now nearly 1.5 billion VND has been swept away by the water."

In Bac Nha Trang ward, after just one night of flooding, nearly ten houses collapsed. Standing in front of a wall stained with traces of the disaster, war invalid Le Tan Phuong (No. 41 Ha Phuoc Street) trembled as he looked at the Cai River, which had swallowed his family's house, and said sadly: "Living for 75 years, I never expected that at the end of my life, my old wife and I would lose our place to live. Well, as long as we have people, we still have property. For now, we will stay with relatives and think about what to do later."

Urgently restore schools and hospitals

Early in the morning of November 22, Mr. Than Tan Tam - Vice Principal in charge of Vinh Trung Primary School (West Nha Trang Ward) came to the school to check the situation. Before his eyes was a chaotic scene: the school yard was covered in mud; large trees were uprooted; tables and chairs were scattered; more than 100m of the surrounding wall had collapsed; all documents, computers, printers... of the administrative office were broken. "The school has never been so severely damaged. It is expected that it will take at least a week to fix the problem and let students return to school" - Mr. Tam said.

Doctors at Khanh Hoa Tropical Diseases Hospital examine patients.

At Luong The Vinh Secondary School (West Nha Trang Ward), more than 80 officers and students of Battalion 2, Naval Academy were present from early morning on November 22 to assist in cleaning. All tables and chairs were moved out to the yard to be scraped and washed. Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Van Thanh - Deputy Commander of Battalion 2 said: "According to the academy's dispatch and based on the list of schools damaged by floods in Tay Nha Trang Ward, the battalion directly contacted the schools to assist in cleaning. The most difficult thing at Luong The Vinh Secondary School is that there is only one faucet, and the water flow is very weak. But we are determined to try our best."

At Khanh Hoa Tropical Diseases Hospital (Dien Khanh Commune), the flood receded, leaving a thick layer of mud covering the ground floor. Many medical equipments lay scattered. On the walls, water stains marked the water level that had risen from 1.5 to 2 meters. With no water or electricity, doctors and nurses had to roll up their pants, wade through the mud to clean up, and focus on maintaining operations, taking advantage of safe areas on the upper floors to ensure that emergency work and patient care were not interrupted. Doctor Ly The Huy - Deputy Director in charge of the hospital said: "The hospital currently has about 100 patients, 150 relatives of patients, including cases affected by floods and taking shelter. We have mobilized all forces to overcome the consequences of floods and maintain treatment, trying to ensure medicine and medical supplies; at the same time, transfer serious cases to Khanh Hoa General Hospital".

After the flood, many other medical facilities also suffered damage to equipment, chemicals, and supplies such as: Oncology Hospital, Psychiatric Hospital, Dien Khanh Regional Medical Center, Khanh Vinh Regional Medical Center, Nha Trang Medical Center, Yersin Nha Trang General Hospital, Dermatology Hospital, Khanh Hoa Lung Hospital, Ninh Thuan Lung Hospital, Bac Ai Regional Medical Center... The total damage up to this point is estimated at 170 billion VND. It is known that as soon as the flood occurred, the Department of Health issued an urgent dispatch requesting units in the industry to thoroughly implement the "4 on-site" motto; strictly maintain the 24/24 duty regime; proactively review, arrange, and mobilize human resources to ensure emergency reception, medical examination, treatment, and patient care. The province's preventive medical units are actively spraying disinfectants in residential areas and providing instructions on food safety measures. The provincial Center for Disease Control provided an additional 2,000 kg of Chloramine B to medical units for disinfection. Medical examination and treatment facilities have enough stock of medicine to treat patients.

Ensure essential services as soon as possible

If during the rainy and flooded days, widespread power outages are mandatory measures to ensure people's safety, then immediately after the water recedes, the early re-energization is one of the top priorities. Khanh Hoa Power Joint Stock Company has directed the mobilization of resources to handle, restore, and re-energize areas with power outages, especially pumping stations, water plants, and essential infrastructure serving people's lives. The subordinate units mobilized maximum human resources and equipment, closely following the motto "where the water recedes, check and re-energize", ensuring the safety of people and equipment before re-energizing. Power workers were urgently dispatched to flooded areas to check technical parameters. Mr. Phan Nam Chung - Deputy Head of Nha Trang Central Power Management Team said: "To provide electricity to people in flooded areas as soon as possible, the team sent 100 officers, engineers, and technicians to flooded areas immediately after the water receded, working through the night, in the rain, wading through mud to repair the network. By noon on November 23, the entire flooded area had been restored to power."

VNPT staff repaired the hotspot as soon as the flood water subsided.

Heavy rains and floods caused the pumping stations of the two factories Vo Canh and Xuan Phong (Khanh Hoa Water Supply and Drainage Joint Stock Company) to be deeply submerged, forcing the company to temporarily stop supplying water to 4 wards: Nha Trang, South Nha Trang, North Nha Trang, West Nha Trang and neighboring areas from the morning of November 20. Immediately after the water receded, the company gradually restored the system and resumed supplying water from the evening of November 21. Currently, the water supply has not reached its maximum capacity, while the demand for water is increasing. To ensure the maintenance of water supply, the company recommends that customers use water economically and reasonably, prioritizing essential needs; at the same time, continue to make efforts to overcome to reach 100% of water supply capacity.

To restore communications, the Department of Science and Technology, together with the network operators VNPT, Viettel, and MobiFone, mobilized forces and vehicles to urgently go to the areas where the signal was lost to restore the network. Mr. Pham Quoc Hoan - Director of the Department of Science and Technology said that this flood caused widespread damage in the Central region, so the work of repairing telecommunications infrastructure was more difficult because the network operators had to handle it simultaneously in many localities. However, from early morning on November 21, all officers and employees waded through mud and water to handle the problem continuously from morning to night. By the afternoon of November 23, the network operators had repaired more than 85% of the flooded BTS (mobile transceiver stations). “With the forecast that Khanh Hoa may continue to have rain due to the impact of storm No. 15, we have asked network operators to consider response plans for stations that are likely to be flooded during the recovery process to ensure better communication,” said Mr. Pham Quoc Hoan.

There is still a lot of work to be done in post-disaster reconstruction, but with the determination of the entire political system, the resilience of the people and the support from all over the country, Khanh Hoa province will soon overcome difficulties, stabilize production and life. People's lives will gradually return to normal...

GROUP OF REPORTERS

Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/xa-hoi/202511/khan-truongtai-thiet-abb6cf3/