Nghe An urgently deploys response to storm No. 8 in a synchronous, comprehensive and rapid manner

On the afternoon of October 13, the inspection delegation of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control led by Comrade Le Minh Hoan - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control had a meeting with the leaders of Nghe An province on response to storm No. 8.

Members of the delegation also include: Tran Quang Hoai - Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control; Doan Thai Duc - Chief of Office of the National Committee for Natural Disaster Response and Search and Rescue; Major General Nguyen Ngoc Thanh - Deputy Commander of the Mobile Police Command...

Attending the meeting were comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Hoang Nghia Hieu - Member of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. On the side of Military Region 4, there was Major General Ha Tho Binh - Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff of the Military Region.

Overview of the inspection delegation's working session with Nghe An province leaders. Photo: Pham Bang

Reporting to the delegation, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu said that according to the forecast from the North Central Hydrometeorological Station, from the afternoon of October 13 to 14, storm No. 8 will directly affect the North Central region, focusing on Nghe An and Ha Tinh.

To proactively prevent and combat storm No. 8, Nghe An has implemented measures with the motto "4 on-site" to ensure the safety of people, property, key projects and other infrastructure. The Provincial People's Committee issued many dispatches on proactively responding to natural disasters, floods and storms in the context of the complicated developments of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu reports on response to storm No. 8. Photo: Pham Bang

The province has issued an official dispatch prohibiting boats from going out to sea from 0:00 on October 10 to ensure the safety of fishermen and boats. Currently, the province is directing to strengthen inspection of boat anchoring at the anchorage area, ensuring the safety of vehicles and boats when storm No. 8 makes landfall.

Nghe An currently has 2,519 cages and rafts for raising fish in cages. The province has directed safe anchoring and absolutely no one is allowed to stay on the cages and rafts during storms and floods. For the Summer-Autumn - Winter rice area, people are instructed to harvest according to the criterion of "green house is better than ripe field".

Nghe An province has 1,061 large and small dams; currently, 1,035 are full, 23 are over 70% of their design capacity, 2 are about 50-70% of their design capacity; the remaining dam is less than 50% of its design capacity. All dams and reservoirs are being operated by localities and units according to approved disaster prevention plans. However, the province has 84 weak and degraded reservoirs, and 5 key dykes.

The working group inspected the response to storm No. 8 at Lach Quen fishing port (Quynh Luu district). Photo: Pham Bang

According to Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu, there are currently many workers returning home from the South. The province must receive and send them to centralized quarantine areas. To ensure the safety of citizens, the province has reviewed evacuation points such as schools, committees, cultural houses, etc. to evacuate people, ensuring that the quarantine areas and evacuation areas are separate; in addition, it is necessary to ensure medical care and food supplies to ensure the safest evacuation of people.

Comrade Nguyen Quang Hung - Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries spoke at the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

At the meeting, Nghe An province proposed and recommended 3 contents to the delegation. Lam River has a very large basin in Lao PDR (about 11,200 km2). Therefore, the province proposed that the Central Government strengthen international cooperation in weather forecasting with the neighboring country for early warning. At the same time, it proposed to decentralize the Ta Lam dike line passing through Do Luong and Thanh Chuong districts (13 km long), the Kim - Hai - Hung and Trung - Thinh - Thanh sea dikes (in Dien Chau district with a length of 25 km) to level III dikes.

The province also proposed that the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development consider supporting funding to invest in the construction and repair of a number of key disaster prevention projects in the province: Repairing key weak points of Yen Xuan Km74+600 - Km78+660, Ta Lam dike, this is a type I key point; Agreeing on the investment policy to build a water regulation project on the Ca River and assigning Nghe An province (the investor is the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development) to implement the project.

CONTINUE TO DEPLOY SYNCHRONOUSLY, COMPREHENSIVELY AND QUICKLY

After listening to the opinions of the delegation members, based on the actual inspection at the scene, concluding the inspection, comrade Le Minh Hoan - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control highly appreciated the solutions that Nghe An province has deployed to respond to storm No. 8. At the same time, he requested the province to continue to deploy solutions in a synchronous, comprehensive and rapid manner.

Comrade Le Minh Hoan - Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Deputy Head of the Standing Committee of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control concluded the inspection session. Photo: Pham Bang

Considering that time is running out because according to forecasts, storm No. 8 will make landfall tomorrow afternoon (October 14), the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development requested Nghe An province to strengthen communication so that people from mountainous areas to midland and coastal areas can promptly grasp information about flood discharge, rainfall... to promptly respond. Proactively connect information in flood discharge work, forecast the affected areas downstream, especially residential areas, to protect people's lives and property. These issues must match in all situations.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development also requested the province to strictly manage vessels at anchorage areas, not allowing people to stay on boats and fish farms. In quarantine areas for citizens returning from the South, there must be plans to ensure safety, and people must be strictly prohibited from traveling during the storm to avoid unpredictable consequences.

Leaders of Military Region 4, Nghe An province attended the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

Speaking at the meeting, Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy said that Nghe An has 82 km of coastline and is greatly affected by storms forming from the East Sea with increasingly complex and unusual intensity and frequency. Every year, storms have greatly affected the lives, health, lives and property of local people. In addition, the province also has to endure flooding and landslides in mountainous areas.

In 2020, due to natural disasters, Nghe An province had 17 deaths, 13 injuries, 54 houses collapsed, and about 3,300 houses had their roofs blown off. About 10,000 people had to evacuate to safety. Preliminary estimates show that in 2020, Nghe An suffered about 1,500 billion VND in damage due to natural disasters.

The Provincial Party Secretary stated that on average, Nghe An province is affected by 8-12 storms each year, being a "fire pan, rain center". In addition to natural disasters, in the past nearly 2 years, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on all aspects of life in the province. Up to now, the province has basically controlled the epidemic, but the province has had to allocate a huge amount of funding for this work. Despite many difficulties, the province's socio-economic situation in the first 9 months of 2021 still achieved positive results. In particular, agriculture continues to be the support for the province's economy, with a growth rate of 5.31%.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

Affirming that Nghe An province has always been proactive in responding to minimize the damage caused by storm No. 8, Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy emphasized that the province has seriously received and understood the directions, instructions, and exchanges of the inspection team. The province will start implementing these issues tonight and tomorrow, before storm No. 8 makes landfall.

In particular, control of boats, vehicles, and people in coastal and mountainous areas. The province will also pay attention to post-storm circulation, be on duty 24/7 at weak and degraded dams and dykes, and if necessary, promptly discharge floodwaters, protect construction works, proactively evacuate people from dangerous areas, and prepare necessities for people in case of being isolated by storms and floods./.