Central region floods persistently, landslides lurk

SUFFERING FROM FLOODING

The flood level on the Thu Bon River ( Da Nang City) at Cau Lau station peaked at 5.62 m at 2:00 a.m. on October 30, 0.14 m higher than the historic flood of 1964 - the biggest flood of the 20th century in Vietnam. After that, the flood began to slowly recede, at 6:00 a.m. it was 5.54 m, and by yesterday afternoon at Cau Lau station it was still at 5.16 m. The flood on the Vu Gia - Thu Bon system is forecast to continue to recede slowly today, October 31, but will still remain at levels from alert level 1 to above alert level 2.

Army works overnight to rescue people in flooded areas of Da Nang

PHOTO: NGOC HAN

Never before have people in the Central region followed flood forecasts and watched every indicator of water levels on rivers and streams so closely. Not only has the flood peak exceeded historical peaks, but the entire downstream area has been heavily flooded for more than 3 days, causing serious damage and greatly disrupting people's lives. The rain has stopped and the flood has receded slowly, but that does not lessen their worries. Da Nang City alone has recorded more than 76,000 flooded houses, nearly 15,900 people have had to leave the danger zone to find temporary shelter.

In the upstream area of Thuong Duc, when the flood had just receded, people urgently cleaned up. Mr. Nguyen Van Dong (in Dai My village) was shocked: "3 days of complete isolation, electricity and communication were paralyzed. Water flooded the roof. My house was nearly 3 meters deep. This flood is historic." The family of Mr. Le Nam (56 years old, in Hoi Khach Tay village, Thuong Duc commune) had just returned home after several days of fleeing the flood and painfully watched the floodwaters sweep away all their belongings. "Faced with the fierce flood, my family had to run for our lives first. We lost everything!", Mr. Nam said sadly.

Yesterday, taking advantage of the gradually receding water, relief shipments were urgently transported to flooded areas, sharing the difficulties that tens of thousands of people have endured in the past few days.

On the afternoon of October 30, Hoi An market was still submerged in water.

PHOTO: CX

Floods on the rivers of Hue City are also gradually receding, but some villages in the lower areas are still deeply submerged, making it difficult for rescue teams to access. According to Thanh Nien reporters, floods still surround many houses and roads downstream, paralyzing traffic; Dan Dien, Quang Dien, Phu Ho communes, Hoa Chau, Thanh Thuy, Huong Thuy wards... are still deeply flooded. Since early morning, rescue teams and shock troops have been working hard to transport food and drinking water for supplies, but some places are still inaccessible. The Da Nang volunteer group even had to use a drone to bring relief goods to the isolated area in Vy Da Ward (Hue City).

INSTITUTION IN HIGHLANDS

Mr. Briu Quan, Chairman of the People's Committee of A Vuong Commune (Da Nang City), is worried about the situation where 16/16 villages have lost contact due to power and communication paralysis, completely isolated by landslides. The water is gradually receding but the landslides are still very complicated. Particularly, A'ur village with 23 Co Tu households (198 people) located in the middle of the deep forest has lost contact since October 26 until now. " This flood has caused very heavy damage to the locality. The commune has proposed to the People's Committee of Da Nang City to support the first step of funding to repair the roads managed by the commune to connect to the isolated villages," said Mr. Quan.

Mobilizing people to overcome landslides on the road from Vuong village to Cat village, Go village, Thanh Bong commune, Quang Ngai

PHOTO: PHAM ANH

In Tra Doc commune, to reach 5 isolated highland villages, local leaders had to take a boat across the Song Tranh hydroelectric reservoir. The whole commune has 33 large and small landslides, cutting off traffic, isolating nearly 1,500 people, not to mention the 4-day power outage. "We are closely following the area, prioritizing support for isolated households," said Mr. Phan Duy Hung, Chairman of Tra Doc Commune People's Committee.

Hundreds of people in the highlands of Quang Ngai are also isolated due to landslides. At around 10am yesterday, October 30, in the highland commune of Thanh Bong, a serious landslide occurred, hundreds of cubic metres of rock and soil from the positive slope collapsed, burying the entire main road, completely isolating 52 households. The large volume of rock and soil combined with the steep and rugged terrain made recovery work very difficult.

A few hours later, during a trip to inspect the flood situation in Thanh Bong commune and survey the landslide route of Tra Lam - Tra Hiep, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung requested to ensure the safety of people's lives. "It is necessary to proactively evacuate people in areas at risk of landslides and floods to safe places, and promptly arrange a stable and long-term resettlement area for people," Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung emphasized.

Yesterday afternoon, October 30, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha also inspected and directed the flood relief work in the mountainous district of Son Tay (Quang Ngai). In Ra Nhua village, Son Tay commune, where there was a serious landslide at Km15+900, about 10,000 m³ of rock and soil collapsed onto Provincial Road 623, which has been completely burying the road for the past two days. Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha requested Quang Ngai province and armed forces to urgently mobilize more vehicles and make efforts to clear Provincial Road 623 today, October 31, have a plan to transport food to people in isolated areas, and assign engineers to coordinate in breaking rocks and handling major landslides.

Urgent tasks of authorities at all levels

Yesterday morning, October 30, Politburo member and Standing member of the Secretariat Tran Cam Tu went directly to Tra Doa village (Thang An commune, Da Nang city) to inspect the situation, visit and encourage people in the flooded area. Accompanying her were Ms. Ha Thi Nga, Vice President of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, representatives of the Ministry of National Defense, Military Region 5, and leaders of Da Nang city...

Standing member of the Secretariat Tran Cam Tu inquired about the health, life and living conditions of households in the isolated areas; shared the losses and difficulties that people are suffering, encouraged them to overcome difficulties and presented many support gifts. Mr. Tran Cam Tu requested Da Nang City and localities to continue mobilizing all resources, ensuring necessities, medicine, clean water, and proactively overcoming the consequences, restoring infrastructure and livelihoods after the flood. "Do not let people in flooded areas go hungry, cold or lack safe housing. That is the people's command and an urgent task of authorities at all levels," Mr. Tran Cam Tu emphasized.

The Standing Secretariat also inspected Duy Nghia sea embankment, encouraged and shared with the functional forces who are reinforcing the embankment landslides day and night. Here, over the past two days, nearly 1,000 officers and soldiers of Division 315 (Military Region 5), police forces, militia, union members and people of Duy Nghia commune responded to reinforce the embankment in conditions of heavy rain, strong waves and high tides.

On the same day, in Quang Tri, Deputy Prime Minister Mai Van Chinh directly inspected the flood response situation in the area; visited and presented gifts to encourage people in flooded areas in Ninh Chau and Hai Lang communes; and asked local authorities not to let people go hungry, cold, or lack clean water...

In Quang Ngai, yesterday afternoon, two working delegations led by Deputy Prime Ministers Ho Quoc Dung and Tran Hong Ha also directly inspected the landslide situation and flood recovery work in Thanh Bong and Tay Tra Bong communes.

Central region welcomes new heavy rain

The central provinces will continue to have heavy rains lasting until November 4, with the risk of dangerous natural disasters such as heavy rain, flooding, flash floods, and landslides occurring at the same time. Specifically, the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said that on October 30, cold air began to affect the Northeast region, causing rain in many places. It is forecasted that in the coming days, cold air will continue to strengthen, expanding the area of influence to the North Central region, the Northwest and the Central Central region.

Due to the influence of the cold air strengthening combined with the tropical convergence zone with its axis maintained through the Central Central region, and easterly wind disturbances operating at altitudes from 1,500 - 5,000 m, the Central provinces will continue to experience widespread heavy rain lasting until November 4.

It is forecasted that from the evening of October 30 to November 1, the provinces from Nghe An to northern Quang Tri will have heavy to very heavy rain, generally 200 - 400 mm, in some places over 700 mm. From the night of October 31 to November 1, from southern Quang Tri to Hue, there will be heavy rain, generally 70 - 150 mm, in some places very heavy rain, over 250 mm. During this period, the heavy rain will be concentrated in the provinces from Nghe An to the north of Quang Tri province (former Quang Binh province).

It is forecasted that from October 30 to November 1, rivers from Nghe An to northern Quang Tri (old Quang Binh) will experience a flood. Floods on the upper reaches of Ca River (Nghe An), Ngan Sau and Ngan Pho Rivers (Ha Tinh), Gianh and Kien Giang Rivers (Quang Tri) will experience a flood from level 2 to level 3, with some rivers above level 3, and the lower reaches of Ca River (Nghe An), La River (Ha Tinh) will rise above level 1.

According to the Department of Dyke Management and Natural Disaster Prevention (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment), citing quick reports from the provinces and cities of Quang Tri, Hue, Da Nang, Quang Ngai and Lam Dong, by the late afternoon of October 30, floods had killed 10 people, left 12 missing and injured 24.

Phan Hau

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/mien-trung-ngap-dai-dang-sat-lo-rinh-rap-185251030222218226.htm