Heartbreaking pain of rice farmers

(Baonghean) -On the fateful morning of April 1, over 30 people were silently working at the foot of the rock mountain when suddenly the entire cliff moved. Large and small rocks of hundreds of tons fell down one after another, collapsing, burying both machines and people. They were farmers struggling to make a living on their homeland - Nam Thanh commune - Yen Thanh.. Grief and tears covered the entire poor neighborhood...

Disaster strikes!

At 7:20 a.m. on April 1, 2011, a giant rock suddenly collapsed from a height of nearly 40 meters on top of Co cliff.buried over 30 people. The scene was truly terrifying. Rocks and soil were strewn about, dozens of rocks as big as houses lay scattered as if challenging the rescue work. Around the foot of the cliff, the jaws of the rocks were gouged out. A farmer living nearby was still in shock, saying: “The Chin Men Company had the right to exploit this cliff, but because of greed, the business owner continued to dig under the foot of the cliff. This year, the cliff shook many times, and once the rocks and soil fell down, but luckily everyone had gone to take shelter from the rain, so no one was killed.”

On the morning of April 1, after the rain, the roof was soaked with water, the sky was sunny, the poor farmers went to the quarry again hoping to earn a little more money to make up for the potatoes and rice grains to warm their hearts, and more notebooks and pens for their children to study... They worked hard, silently with rocks and dust, the sound of the stone crusher was deafening, the sound of cars and tractors coming in and out to transport rocks was so loud that no other sound could be heard. In a split second, the earth moved, the sky darkened, dozens of people died!

Half of the roof collapsed. Photo: Tran Hai


Crushed many machines and vehicles. Photo: Tran Hai


The body of a car was pulled out from under a pile of rocks… Photo: Tran Hai

Immediately after the incident, leaders of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee and leaders of Yen Thanh District, along with departments and branches of the province and Yen Thanh District, were present to direct the handling of the consequences, mobilized engineering forces, police, and soldiers to strengthen the search, mobilized the maximum amount of large machinery, such as cranes over 50 tons and other equipment and means for search and rescue. At 8:00 p.m. the same day, the Intermediate Dog Training School brought 3 service dogs to join the search for the victims. Immediately after the incident, a victim inside the pile of rocks and soil called for help, but the rescue team did not know where to look because too much rock had fallen. Excavators and cranes worked actively, and were able to get more than a dozen victims out of the pile of rocks and soil. The injured were quickly taken to the emergency room, while the bodies of the dead victims were almost all not intact.

After much effort, the engineering force of Military Region 4 has detonated a large rock, finding 16 bodies. At 9:00 p.m. on April 1, Mr. Nguyen Tien Loi - Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee said: Up to this point, there are still 2 victims trapped in the pile of rocks. Rescue work is facing many difficulties, because of the large amount of rocks. The province and district continue to direct the engineering force to remove all victims from the scene at all costs, even if they have to work all night. According to reporters, at 7:00 a.m. this morning, April 2, although the rescue force worked all night, the bodies of the 2 victims have not been found. The rescue force is still actively drilling and breaking rocks, searching at all costs.

Thousands of people watched rescue workers deal with the aftermath. Photo: Xuan Hoang


Security forces protect the scene. Photo: Van Truong

Pain upon pain!

As the ambulances wailed their sirens, the bad news quickly spread to Nam Thanh Secondary School. Many students burst into tears upon hearing that their parents had just collapsed. They looked at each other and cried, teachers and students hugged each other and cried. The tragedy was heartbreaking, with some families losing two children at once in this rock collapse.

Nguyen Tho Phuong's family, who has been living near the cliff for a long time, has been working as a "rock-lifter" to support the whole family. They said: That morning, both sons Nguyen Tho Hoang and Nguyen Tho Vu just had a quick breakfast and then went up the cliff to drill rocks and place mines. After working for less than 10 minutes, they heard a loud noise, Phuong looked out and saw... alas, Co cliff was a pile of rocks and soil. It was heartbreaking, 7 women were also buried in an instant. Ms. Tran Thi Sau, whose husband had just passed away 100 days ago, went up the cliff to lift rocks to support her 3 young children's education, this morning she was an unfortunate victim, not knowing what would happen to her 3 young children. In Phan Dang Luu hamlet, 2 years ago, there was a tragic lightning strike that killed 3 victims, and now the cliff collapse has added to the pain when the villagers had to witness 7 more female victims.

Provincial leaders, organizations, provincial and district departments
share and encourage. Photo: Xuan Hoang.


Burning incense to say goodbye to the unfortunate person. Photo: Van Truong


Men also could not hold back their tears. Photo: Tran Hai

We went to Yen Thanh District Medical Center. Here, Ms. Phan Thi Hong had broken both her arms and legs and was writhing in pain. Ms. Hong was in a difficult situation, her husband died of illness, and she was raising 4 children alone. The mother and children lived in a ragged shack. In order to make ends meet in recent months, Ms. Hong and her 2 older children went to the cliff to break rocks for hire to take care of her 2 younger children who were going to school. On the morning of April 1, she and her second child, Chu Ngoc Manh, went to the cliff to break rocks. Ms. Hong was lucky to escape death, Manh was crushed by the rocks. In pain, Ms. Hong cried out her son's name miserably. Late at night, in the middle of the mountains and forests, incense smoke billowed, and the miserable cries of those whose relatives had died were heard. Thousands of people were still following the rescue work, hoping to get the unfortunate victims out of the pile of rocks and even more hoping that there would be survivors.

This morning, April 2, the whole Nam Thanh commune was immersed in white mourning scarves, birds were in tears of pain, Phan Dang Luu hamlet had 7 funerals at the same time, all of them were women.

The white mourning scarf flows into the sky, tears fill the earth!

Xuan Hoang-Vuong Tran-Tran Hai