According to the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting, the Central provinces from Thua Thien Hue to Phu Yen and the Central Highlands provinces of Kon Tum, Giai Lai have suffered heavy rainfall and thunderstorms since last night.
Yesterday afternoon, the precipitation in Ha Tinh Province saw a drop and flooding lessened, so residents in many communes of Huong Khe District began to return home to fix property damages and quickly come back to work. Other low-rise communes are still experiencing serious flooding of 30-100cm and separated from their neighborhoods.
On the same day, functional forces in Cam Xuyen District transported 100 gabions and 200m3 of crushed stone, 500 bamboo poles to urgently reinforce landslide sites along Ngan Mo River (Cam Due Commune).
At 4:30 p.m. yesterday, the North-South Railway line was successfully repaired and available for traffic again.
Torrential rain yesterday in Quang Binh Province caused flooding in various locations in the districts of Tuyen Hoa, Bo Trach, Minh Hoa. The way to access Ha Mon Village and My Son Village in Bo Trach District was 1m deep under water, isolating hundreds of households.
High precipitation continued to happen yesterday in the provinces from Ha Tinh to Phu Yen, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, and Dak Lak. Today and tomorrow, the rain center moves to Thua Thien-Hue Province and Binh Dinh Province (100-200mm) while the previous ones see a precipitation reduction to 40-80mm.
 |
| Rivers, lakes, and fields in Ha Tinh Province are deep under water due to long and heavy rain (Photo: SGGP) |
Deputy Prime Minster Tran Luu Quang yesterday signed Dispatch No.1034 of the Prime Minister, asking ministries and localities in the Central and Central Highlands regions to actively adopt measures to ensure citizen safety during heavy rain and flooding.
In the dispatch, the Prime Minister sent condolences to relatives and families of victims of the recent natural disaster in the Central and Central Highlands regions. He requested that the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control as well as the National Committee for Search and Rescue of Vietnam (Vinasarcom), related ministries and localities continue to cope with heavy rain and ensure life safety for citizens.
The People’s Committees of concerned provinces hold evacuation rounds for residents in highly risky areas of landslide and flashflood, serious flooding. Essential commodities must be provided to those in need.
Guards must be assigned to control the traffic in underground ways and spillways, deep flooding areas, landslides. Students in those areas must have their safety guaranteed. All are forbidden to enter unsafe places.
The Transport Ministry is asked to cooperate with related localities to regulate traffic in locations of heavy rain and flooding while trying to repair damaged facilities to ensure smooth traffic flow, especially in main routes and the North-South railway line.
 |
The Vietnam Disaster and Dyke Management Authority (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) informed that high tides and rising sea levels lead to extremely high river levels in both the North and South regions. Particularly, the level on Red River is predicted to reach 1.4m today, whereas the one on Mekong River on November 3 is forecast to be 2.85m (Tan Chau Town in An Giang Province).
Due to heavy rain, irrigation reservoirs in the South Central, Southern, and Central Highlands regions yesterday were at 84-96 percent of their designed capacity. Nine hydroelectric reservoirs in the Central Highlands had to regulate water through overflowing.
From October 28-31, four deaths or missing cases owing to natural disasters were reported in the provinces of Ha Tinh and Cao Bang.
In related news, the Nghe An Province Department of Industry and Trade yesterday released its inspection report on flood discharge operations of Chau Thang Hydropower Plant (sited in Quy Chau District) and Nhan Hac Hydropower Plant (located in Que Phong District) during the torrential rain from September 26-27.
Accordingly, the forecasting work of these two plants was not precise, leading to the passive state in predicting the water volume entering their reservoirs. Therefore, they could not timely deliver warnings to people in the downstream areas.
Before this, the historic flood on September 27 in Quy Chau District had killed 1 person and damaged nearly 1,400 houses. The total damage was estimated to be VND142 billion (US$6.78 million).
