The Central region is resilient to storms and floods

Proactively worrying about food amid landslides and flash floods

sweat and wet rainwater covered his shirt, Mr. Ho Van Doi, a resident of Tu Nuong village, Tra Tap commune (Da Nang) still thoughtfully pushed away each block of landslide, his eyes not leaving the muddy road that had just been cleared. "How long will the commune delegation be?" - he asked, his voice was a bit worried. For more than a week now, serious landslides have caused the village (54 households with more than 270 people) to be cut off, with food reserves of only a few cans of rice and a few dried potatoes.

When the relief team of Tra Tap commune appeared, bags of rice, fish sauce, and instant noodles were passed by hand across the landslide cliff. Mr. Doi hugged the bag of rice, smiled and mixed it with the rainwater: "Before the rain, I had time to harvest rice to save, but the rain in a few more days was not enough. Now that the commune has brought rice, fish sauce, and salt, the people are much more assured".

Chairman of Tra Tap Commune People's Committee - Mr. Le Trung Thuc shared that the commune has proactively promoted people to harvest crops early and reserve food before the rainy season. Thanks to proactiveness, no one is hungry. When the food is gone, we take advantage of the rice cooking source of the boarding school, temporarily provide it to the people and then buy it back later."

From this experience, the commune continued to provide dozens of tons of rice to more than 8,000 people to prevent heavy rain and storm No. 13. A mountainous commune, amidst the landslides, has become a bright spot in the proactive spirit of "4 on-site".

At the same time, in the low-lying areas of Hoa Tien and Cam Le, hundreds of union members divided into groups to clear mud, repair corrugated iron roofs, and clear sewers. The police and the army built temporary bridges and used drones to transfer relief goods to the isolated point. Da Nang and Military Region 5 have mobilized more than 36,000 people, hundreds of vehicles, and evacuated nearly 16,000 people from the danger zone.

Efforts to recover after natural disasters

Currently, many relics, hospitals, and schools in Hue City have reopened. The Center for Monuments Conservation of the Ancient Capital fences off and warns of the Imperial Citadel area where the wall collapsed about 15m long to ensure safety.

At the Children's Center - Hue Central Hospital, Mr. Phung Nhat Phi (30 years old, Quang Tri) went on a journey of more than 100km to take his 2-month-old daughter to Hue for emergency treatment for severe pneumonia, surrounded by floodwaters. At that time, 32/40 communes and wards in Hue were deeply flooded, water overflowed into the hospital grounds, but doctors and nurses were still on duty 24/7, promptly receiving and treating. After 3 days of active intervention, Phung H. V. was out of danger and in stable health.

Director of Hue Central Hospital Pham Nhu Hiep said that from October 27, prolonged heavy rain caused the river water to rise rapidly, overflowing into facility 1. By the afternoon, many departments such as Dermatology, Tropical Diseases, Lung Diseases, Neurology, Dentistry, and Cardiology were deeply flooded. The hospital activated an emergency flood prevention plan according to the "4 on-site" motto, mobilizing hundreds of staff to evacuate patients, raise machinery, protect records, and ensure continuous electricity and oxygen.

Head nurse Nguyen Thi Tra My (Department of Tropical Diseases) said that the water rose very quickly, so the staff had to hold and push the patient up to the upper floor, reassuring the elderly and people breathing oxygen so that treatment would not be interrupted. As soon as the water recedes, the hospital disinfects, cleans, and treats drainage to prevent epidemics after floods.

The recent floods have caused 7 commune health stations and 4 hospitals and centers under the Hue Department of Health to be flooded; 25 other facilities were flooded with yards, access roads... making it difficult to examine and treat diseases. In Da Nang, more than 123,000 households were flooded; 74,194 wells, more than 118,000 toilets, 263 public areas, 191 schools and 43 medical facilities need to be treated, disinfected, and the environment is clean. Some hospitals and medical stations were flooded more than 1m deep. Up to now, medical examination and treatment activities in these two localities have been basically stable, continuing to monitor the weather and proactively respond.

According to Ms. Dang Thi Duong - President of the Hue Women's Union - most of the members suffered heavy damage, but the enterprise was still proactive in both overcoming and maintaining production. For example, the frozen warehouse of Linh Vy Food Trading and Service Company Limited was deeply flooded, causing the destruction of about 17-18 tons of goods, the rest were temporarily transferred to Thuan An for preservation.

Nearly half of educational institutions in Hue, Da Nang, and Quang Ngai have resumed teaching and learning. Schools that are still flooded continue to clean up, "where the water recedes, cleaning will be done" to soon welcome students.

Proactively responding to storms and floods

After more than a week of floods, the damage in Da Nang City amounted to more than 837 billion VND, 14 people died, 4 people were missing, thousands of hectares of crops and seafood were swept away. The whole city has 7 national highways and 20 provincial roads that have been eroded and are congested.

In Quang Ngai, the estimated damage is about 314 billion VND, there are still hundreds of households in mountainous communes such as Son Tay, Ba To, Tra Bong, Ngoc Linh, Dak Plo, Dak P Mek... whose trade activities have been stalled, greatly affecting their lives and production.

From November 3, floods on the rivers of the Central region from Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Hue, Da Nang and Quang Ngai will all rise again. In many places, this is the fourth time people have had to clean up floods. People in mountainous and low-lying areas shared rice and wrapped it, workers clinging to the road in the rain to clear the route, the government, the Army, and the volunteer shock forces did not sleep to "keep the people, keep the road, and keep safety".

As of November 4, many vital routes are still congested, but thanks to the efforts of traffic forces, the Army and local authorities, each landslide point is gradually being overcome, temporarily opening a lane to resume traffic, communication, supplying food, drinking water, and medicine to the people.