On August 31, a clip appeared on the internet with direct instructions from Mr. Mai Xuan Liem - Vice Chairman of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee - at the flood scene in Yen Nhan commune about increasing satellite phones for mountainous and border communes. Mr. Liem's direct and specific instructions received many supportive opinions.
Previously, on August 30, Mr. Mai Xuan Liem directly inspected and directed the recovery of damage after storm No. 5 in Yen Nhan and Bat Mot communes. Because the hall is being used to receive relief goods, Mr. Liem suggested that the working group and the commune leaders go to the scene to survey and direct.
Here, commune officials said that when storms and floods cause power outages, roads are cut off, communication is interrupted, and reporting the situation is very difficult. During the recent storm No. 5, commune officials had to walk more than 10km of forest road to have a phone signal to call the province for an urgent report. Going "finding waves" in storms and floods is very dangerous.
Immediately after hearing the report, Mr. Mai Xuan Liem immediately called Mr. Tran Duy Binh - Director of the Department of Science and Technology, requesting the transfer of satellite phones from midland and plain communes, places that do not need to be used to mountainous and border communes.
He clearly said: "I want to bring those machines up to the commune, up immediately. Even my machine was given to the commune. He reviewed everything, assigned to any district that was not necessary to collect and submit to the commune leaders during floods. When there was an unfortunate power outage and there was no longer any communication, the machine was still used to report the situation to the province. Just like Yen Nhan recently, commune leaders have to travel 10 kilometers to call, if they are on the road, they do not know how to live or die".
Mr. Tran Duy Binh reported by phone that the networks are now fully connected. Mr. Liem reacted strongly: "Just listen. When it is clear, it is clear, but when it rains, there is no electricity, and when there are landslides, what is clear? You guys just sit at home, what do you know?....
According to Mr. Liem, under normal conditions, the networks are very good, talking to each other by phone, but in the context of storms, floods, power outages, and urgent situations, normal communication is very difficult, only then do we need satellite phones.
Mr. Mai Xuan Liem asked Mr. Binh: "Review all the satellite phones that have been provided, communes that have been through the recent rain and still kept in touch should stop, and about 50 communes should be given priority for communes to lose contact, so that commune leaders can call the province. If only I and my brothers held them, what would we do?
On August 31, speaking with Lao Dong, Mr. Liem confirmed the above instructions and shared that he had been directly going to mountainous areas to direct flood control for many years when he was still the Director of the Department of Transport, so he was very impatient when information from the commune was interrupted. "Just hearing the commune leaders report a sentence "no one was hurt or died" is a great thing, if you don't know anything, just worry and worry".
Immediately after the direction of the Vice Chairman, the Department of Science and Technology of Thanh Hoa implemented a plan to transfer satellite phones to where they needed.
According to Mr. Liem, after storm No. 6, the province will organize a summary and draw lessons from the work of directing natural disaster prevention and overcoming in the conditions of a two-level government: "All preparations and instructions must be in the right place and at the right time. We cannot leave the situation where where we need it, we do not need it, where we have it, we do not need it; when we have it, we cannot use it, when we need it, we cannot use it."
