Guesthouse A1 has 36 rooms, guesthouse An Son has 80 rooms for people. Trieu Ky Vong Hotel, which still has 9 empty rooms, also decided to open for free, prioritizing the elderly, young children and families in areas at risk of deep flooding and landslides.
Among those taken to safe places was the family of Mrs. Nong Thi Hien in Tam Thanh ward. The house was deeply flooded, and the family also had an 8-month-old grandchild. When the soldiers took her to guesthouse A1, she only had time to bring some clothes, instant noodles and necessary food.
At the same time, in Cat Ba, Hai Phong, many tourists who could not return to the mainland due to the impact of storm No. 4 also received support from people and businesses.
Some hotels reduced room rates from 600,000 VND to 250,000 VND, then provided free of charge for additional stays. Some hotel owners waive all room fees and give away instant noodles. Some restaurants decided to reduce the total bill by 20-30% for tourists who had to stay on the island to avoid the storm.
Those actions sound small, but they are very meaningful during natural disasters.
A room is usually a business product. A meal is a source of income for a restaurant. But when floods rise or storms trap others, those rooms and meals become a way for people to protect each other.
More preciously, business establishments in Cat Ba are also facing difficulties. When the storm lasts, food and fuel sources may be scarce, input prices increase, and business operations are stalled. Reducing prices or exempting room rates therefore also means that they accept sharing a part of the difficulties with tourists.
When natural disasters strike, the government, army, police and professional rescue forces in the locality are immediately present. But reality also shows that the ability of a locality to cope with natural disasters is multiplied when there is linkage and spirit of mutual support in the community.
If those resources are connected and a coordination plan is built in advance, then the very beautiful spontaneous actions today can completely become part of the on-site disaster response network.
A tourist may forget the price of a room or a meal after a trip, but it is hard to forget being exempted from room fees by the hotel owner when stranded in the storm. A family will also remember for a long time the guesthouse door opened for them on a night of rising floodwaters.
It is a beautiful image of a locality. And more broadly, it is the image of a community that knows how to open their doors to help each other in adversity.
Doors opening in floods like that bring values that cannot be measured in money.
