The market was severely damaged after the storm, many traders in Nghe An have not been able to resume business.

Vinh Ga Market is the second largest market in the old Vinh City, and is also the market that suffered the most damage in Nghe An province after storm No. 5. According to reporters from Nghe An Newspaper, Radio and Television, the entire food stalls in the market collapsed, the brick walls were broken, the corrugated iron roofs and iron frames were broken into piles. The once bustling area now has only a scene of desolation and ruins.

Not only the food court area, many surrounding kiosks had to close due to the risk of further collapse. As of September 8, workers had not yet finished cleaning up the scene. Meanwhile, more than 20 small businesses specializing in selling food, vegetables, and soft drinks were forced to close for a long time, with no other place to maintain their livelihood.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Dao, a small trader at the Vinh Ga market food stall, choked up: “We have been doing business here for decades, considering our stalls our second home. But now, seeing the market devastated and the shops in ruins, everyone feels heavy-hearted. No place to trade means no income, we don’t know how to manage.”

As for Ms. Truong Thi Thu Huong, her banh muot stall had to ask to be located on a corner of the street in the market to continue working. She sighed, sitting here temporarily selling is extremely inconvenient, and affects pedestrians. But what can we do, we have no other job besides this business. Every day we try our best to just cover our daily living expenses, and taking care of our children's education is really difficult."

A representative of the Vinh Ga Market Management Board said that after the food stall collapsed, the unit reported to the ward and hired workers to clean up, but the workload was too great, and it is expected that the cleaning will be completed by September 15.

Mr. Dinh Nho Tai - Vice Chairman of Thanh Vinh Ward People's Committee said: "Ga Vinh Market is a facility that suffered heavy damage after storm No. 5. In parallel with mobilizing forces to clean up the scene, we have sent a document asking for opinions and requesting the province to support funding to rebuild the market hall, and soon stabilize business for small traders."

It is known that Vinh Railway Station Market started construction in 1993 and was put into use in 1994, with a scale of nearly 9,000m², more than 1,600 stalls. It used to be a bustling trading point of the old Vinh city, but in recent years, the infrastructure has degraded, the number of customers is sparse, and the life of small traders is not very favorable. The recent storm No. 5 has made those difficulties even more complicated.

Not only Vinh Ga market, Hung Dung market, Truong Vinh ward also fell into a similar situation. The two main communal house and food stall areas had many kiosks with their roofs blown off, and the ventilation system was severely damaged. Statistics show that 16 small businesses were directly affected, most of them selling food, meat, fruit and beauty service stalls.

Ms. Chu Thi Ha, a business owner here, said: “After the storm passed, we had to pay out of our own pocket to hire workers to repair it, each household spent about 10 million VND, both to clean up and to temporarily support it. But that was only a temporary solution, because in fact the foundation was rotten and could collapse at any time. In fact, some other small businesses did not dare to reopen due to fear of danger…”.

Mr. Pham Thanh Hai - Deputy Head of Hung Dung Market Management Team said: "The market was built a long time ago, many items are degraded and damaged. The recent storm was too strong, although the people and the management board proactively reinforced it, it could not avoid heavy damage. For now, households have to spend their own money to make temporary repairs to maintain their business, but for fundamental repairs, we have to wait for support from the ward and the province."

Even Vinh market, the largest market in Nghe An, could not avoid damage after the storm. The main roof of the temple was blown off, and rainwater poured down, soaking and damaging the goods. Although the Management Board quickly repaired the damage, many traders still expressed concern because the market structure had deteriorated, and many goods had to be covered with tarpaulins because of the continuous dripping of water.

Currently, Nghe An province has about 370 traditional markets, most of which were built a long time ago, have not been renovated, and are now seriously degraded. Every rainy and stormy season, the risk of insecurity always lurks at these traditional markets./.