At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, hot issues related to warnings and consequences of natural disasters received much attention.
Mr. Hoang Duc Cuong - Deputy Director of the Department of Hydrometeorology - affirmed that up to now, the forecasting system has not received information related to storm No. 12.
"There will definitely be storm No. 12 in the East Sea because there will still be storms from now until the end of the year. However, at present, we have not seen any conditions for storm No. 12 to appear in the East Sea.
Social networks also reported that there was a storm right after storm No. 11 Matmo. This is the 22nd storm in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and is named after the name of the Vietnamese province, Ha Long. Therefore, many people misunderstand Ha Long as storm No. 12. However, this storm did not enter the East Sea, so it is not storm No. 12 as reported on social networks," Mr. Cuong informed.
Also at the press conference, a representative of the Department of Hydrometeorology said that the rainfall in Hanoi on September 30 due to the circulation of the recent storm No. 10 was not as much as the rainfall in the historic flood in 2008.
"Comparison will be very difficult because there needs to be a set of criteria such as rainfall, rainfall in 12 hours, rainfall in 1 day... to be able to evaluate. However, in terms of area, intensity, rainfall time, and rainfall on September 30, Hanoi was still worse than in 2008. The amount of rain in Hanoi during the recent flood was about 200mm but only lasted less than 1 day, while the 2008 flood had nearly 3 consecutive days of rain with a total rainfall of nearly 800mm. However, this is a similar comparison figure at the two stations. In 2008, there were only Ha Dong and Lang stations, not other stations for full assessment".
Mr. Hoang Duc Cuong also affirmed that the frequency of heavy rain and extreme rain is increasing significantly and will increase major floods.
Regarding the coordination between the Department of Hydrometeorology and departments, branches and localities, Mr. Cuong said that the department is a place for monitoring, evaluating and issuing bulletins and having accompanying impact forecasts and recommendations. However, that is only a recommendation for handling natural disasters, depending on each locality with different levels of damage.
"The recommendations of the Hydrometeorological Agency cannot be detailed to each department and branch. In a short time, the news can only emphasize the type of natural disaster, large-scale subjects and possibly affected in terms of life and great property damage.
Agencies use the Department's bulletins to issue disaster response actions in their fields. When there are natural disasters, the National Civil Defense Steering Committee, ministries, branches and localities will hold meetings to direct and in that meeting, there will certainly be members of the Department of Hydrometeorology to report on information on developments and impacts according to different localities. Based on the meeting conclusion, the head of the Steering Committee, usually the Chairman of the Province, will make appropriate decisions to respond to natural disasters," said Mr. Cuong.
