27 people died due to storm: 'The Central Government keeps issuing telegrams but too many people die'

49 people died and went missing due to storm No. 12. The Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Government Office had to exclaim: "The telegrams were issued, but it is unclear how localities implemented them, but there were so many deaths."

The regular meeting of the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention this morning provided the latest figures on the damage caused by storm No. 12 (Damrey). As of 7am, 27 people have died (Khanh Hoa 16, Binh Dinh 3, Lam Dong 3, Dak Lak 1, 4 people due to a transport ship accident), 22 people are missing.

More than 28,000 houses had their roofs blown off or were damaged, 529 houses collapsed, and nearly 1,500 aquaculture cages were swept away.

In 3 provinces, nearly 100 ships sank, including 8 transport ships, with 17 missing crew members still being searched for.

After the storm, many localities still had widespread power outages: Phu Yen province-wide power outage, Khanh Hoa (except Nha Trang city), Binh Dinh (except Tam Quan district). Dak Lak, Quang Ngai, Dak Nong provinces had power outages in 3-5 districts.

Director General of the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention Tran Quang Hoai chaired the meeting this morning. Photo: T. Hanh

Representatives of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said that the most worrying thing after the storm is the risk of widespread flooding, landslides and flash floods in the Central and South Central provinces.

In the past 6 hours, many places from Hue - Quang Ngai have had especially heavy rain, over 200mm and it is expected to last until November 7.

If calculating the rainfall from October 30 until now, a series of places have exceeded 500mm such as Minh Long (Quang Ngai) 504mm; Ha Bang (Phu Yen) 505mm; Son Giang (Quang Ngai) 582mm; Tien Phuoc (Quang Nam) 621mm; Tra My (Quang Nam) 700mm, Van Canh (Binh Dinh) 701mm.

Heavy rains caused floods on major rivers to rise above Level 3, rivers from Quang Binh - Quang Nam and the southern Central Highlands continued to rise rapidly. There is a high risk of flooding in the provinces from Hue to Phu Yen.

Currently, the capacity of reservoirs in the South Central region has increased by about 5-10%, the discharge has also increased, in particular, Dinh Binh reservoir (Binh Dinh) is discharging nearly 3 times more than yesterday.

Local authorities have not given strong direction

Deputy Director of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Government Office Dao Quang Tinh raised a series of questions after storm No. 12.

“Of the 16 deaths in Khanh Hoa, 8 were due to house collapses and 2 were due to electric shock. We request that the Steering Committee quickly conduct an assessment to learn from experience. The telegrams are issued, but we don’t know how the localities are implementing them, so there are so many deaths,” said Mr. Tinh.

Mr. Dao Quang Tinh (center) said that the human loss caused by the recent storm No. 12 was too great. Photo: T. Hanh

He also asked the forecasting agency to update the flood situation more, to avoid situations like in 1999, where the weather was dry the day before but the next morning everywhere was flooded.

Mr. Tran Quang Hoai, Director General of the General Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Control, also assessed that there was confusion in responding to storm No. 12, and some localities did not give strong direction, leading to great damage.

“The limitations of major storms in some regions have been overcome, such as the recent storm No. 10 in the North Central region, which only caused property damage and very little human loss. This storm has similar wind strength, so why did it cause so many casualties?”, Mr. Hoai asked.

He cited that more than 70,000 fishing boats had been called to shore, but transport ships seemed to ignore the warning, and local authorities also did not care.

“In Binh Dinh, yesterday they reported 8 ships sunk, now they report 10. If the locality does not know this, it will be very difficult to react,” the General Director said.

Or the incident of people dying due to a collapsed house is extremely regrettable. Mr. Hoai requested to clarify the cause, was it due to subjectivity, or was it due to the lack of drastic evacuation?

During storm No. 12, the Central Committee tried its best, mobilized all network operators, including free messaging services, continuously issued telegrams and held online meetings to direct, but the localities below did not know how much was implemented.

"We must clarify and report to the Prime Minister, and draw detailed lessons to use as lessons for localities," Mr. Hoai said.

He also assessed that the ability to meet the requirements of the provincial disaster prevention command offices is currently very low. Now we have to review, many places are having difficulties in human resources and equipment, making it difficult to advise and direct operations.

Regarding flood discharge, Mr. Hoai directed that this afternoon, scientists and professional agencies must be invited to sit down together to calculate the operation of flood discharge from inter-reservoirs, cut floods, and ensure safety for downstream areas, especially at the right time to organize the APEC Summit Week.

At the same time, localities are required to focus on overcoming consequences and restoring people's production and life.

According to Vietnamnet.vn