Unusual mountain cracks
On September 21, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province Le Van Dung directly went to the scene to inspect the hill with a large crack that threatened the entire village in hamlet 56B, border commune of Dac Pre, Nam Giang district.
At the scene, a large crack ran along the hill, 1.5 to 5 meters deep and 123 meters long. Many sections showed signs of landslides, sinking deeper in layers, the cracks widened and soaked with water for many days, with the risk of landslides at any time.
“Right at the foot of this hill is a stable place for 11 households/41 people of Ta Rieng, Ve, Gie Trieng people to live for generations, there has never been a serious landslide. Therefore, the large crack on the hill is unusual. All households were forced to evacuate urgently to schools and solid houses, since the night of September 19” - Nam Giang district leader said.
Mr. Le Van Dung assessed that if the heavy rain continues, there is a great risk of landslides burying the entire village. The situation is very dangerous. At the same time, he directed the Nam Giang district government to urgently search for a new safe location to resettle the people of village 56B before the Lunar New Year this year.
According to the proposal of Nam Giang district, 11 households in village 56B will be urgently resettled for people in landslide-prone areas, according to Resolution 23 of the Provincial People's Council.
The total budget for arranging new resettlement areas is more than 6 billion VND and the expected support budget is about 115 million VND/house. The government will fully invest in electricity, roads, schools, and stations for people to settle down soon.
Unexpected landslide appeared
According to Quang Nam’s disaster prevention project, the province has 93 high-risk areas for landslides, with thousands of households living there, mainly in mountainous areas. However, at the beginning of the rainy season, new landslides have appeared, threatening residential areas and many traffic routes.
Heavy rains from September 18th that lasted for many days caused landslides on the slope in front of Tak Chay village, hamlet 5, Tra Cang commune, Nam Tra My district, forcing people to stay up all night in fear.
In addition to the collapsed land, other houses in the village also began to show long cracks, forcing the government to urgently evacuate and calculate a resettlement plan for 33 households/170 people in the village.
Standing on the old house floor, Ms. Ho Thi Diep (Xe Dang ethnic) in Tak Chay village recounted: “The heavy rain made people tremble, staying up all night, not daring to sleep. At around 2am, a landslide occurred. Luckily, we were able to evacuate in time.”
Tak Chay village was not on the list of locations that had to be evacuated due to the impact of floods, but reality has shown that natural disasters are complex and unpredictable.
“The most difficult problem for localities now is identifying safe spots and risky areas, in order to have appropriate evacuation plans.
The commune has evacuated the households on the list of households in need of emergency evacuation. However, as the rain gets heavier, new landslides have appeared, beyond the locality's predictions," a leader of Tra Don commune, Nam Tra My district, worried.
