Floodwaters rise, many areas are isolated

(Baonghean.vn) -After days of heavy to very heavy rain, the water level on rivers in Nghe An province is rising, many low-lying areas and downstream areas are completely cut off, students have to stay home from school and wait for the water to recede before returning to school.

Due to the influence of storm No. 8, Nghe An experienced heavy to very heavy rain from September 17 to 21, 2013. The total rainfall measured in some locations is as follows: Quy Hop 279mm, Nghia Khanh 374mm, Con Cuong 388.6mm, Do Luong 309mm, Yen Thuong 393mm, Nam Dan 336mm, Vinh 226mm, Quynh Luu 300mm and Cua Hoi 195mm.

Floodwaters inundate houses outside the dike in Hung Long commune, Hung Nguyen district.

Heavy rains over many days have caused flood waters on rivers in the province to rise. The water level at Nam Dan hydrological station at 1:00 p.m. on September 21, 2013 was 6.73m, 0.17m below alert level II. It is estimated that by the morning of September 22, the water level on Ca Nam Dan River is likely to be at 7.3m to 7.5m, 0.4m below alert level III. The rising flood waters have caused severe flooding and isolation in many localities in the province.

Thanh Tung Commune belongs to the old Bich Hao area of ​​Thanh Chuong District. Although it is not near the Lam River, this is a locality that is frequently flooded every time the river water rises. In recent days, continuous heavy rain has caused the roads leading to the center of Thanh Tung Commune to be flooded and completely cut off. On the inter-commune road in the area of ​​Con Trua Bridge, from the afternoon of September 20, the water was already up to the edge, by September 21, the water was nearly 1 meter deep and cut off from the outside world. In hamlets 1, 2, 3 in the Yen Thanh area of ​​the commune, for the past two days, it has turned into an oasis, the two roads leading to the hamlet have been submerged by flood water for a meter, the people in the commune have had to limit their travel to the maximum, some have had to use bamboo boats to move, and the children in the hamlet have had to stay home from school.

Mr. Phan Van Hau, in Hamlet 3, Thanh Tung Commune, said that although it is a mountainous area, every year when it rains, the area around his house is deeply flooded because of the water flowing from upstream. All activities in the hamlet are completely paralyzed. Students are out of school, adults cannot go to the market, cannot go to the fields to produce because the flood water is completely blocked.

Mr. Nguyen Doan Thao, Chairman of Thanh Tung Commune People's Committee, said that the whole commune has more than 1,000 households with 22 production teams and has been divided by floodwaters into 8 areas including Truong Long, Tung Tan, Kim Long, Cai Cheo, Yen Thanh, Phuong Hoang, Phuong Loc, Con Song, Tan Phuong. Currently, to get to this area, the only way is to take a boat through the flooded areas. For the past two days, students in the commune have been off school, and the commune also recommends that people limit travel to avoid danger.

Also in Bich Hao area, for the past two days, Thanh Mai commune residents have had to live with flood water, the roads from the commune center to the hamlets have been flooded and cut off for the past two days. Mr. Bui Van Thang, Chairman of Thanh Mai Commune People's Committee, said that currently, only one section of the road from the commune People's Committee to the Ho Chi Minh trail has not been flooded, the rest have been partially cut off. Rising flood water combined with heavy rain has caused the fence of the commune health station and some households in hamlets 3, 7A, 7B to collapse. Communes such as Thanh Xuan, Thanh Lam, Thanh Giang of Thanh Chuong district are also being cut off by flood water.

People in many areas of Thanh Chuong, Nam Dan and Hung Nguyen districts are having to travel by boat because they are isolated by floodwaters.

Heavy rains in the past few days have caused the floodwaters on the Lam River to rise rapidly, submerging all the roads and fields of the people in the communes outside the Ta Lam dike of Hung Nguyen district such as Hung Loi, Hung Xa, Hung Long, Hung Linh. For the past two days, people living outside the dike have had to travel by boat, some elderly people have been evacuated to the village to avoid the case of continued rain and sudden floodwaters.

Following the people's boat into the flooded area outside the dike in hamlet 12, Hung Long commune, we saw that all the roads in the hamlet were flooded, the deepest part was several meters, many households on the riverbank had their houses flooded. Mr. Nguyen Van Kieu said that on the afternoon of September 20, all the roads were passable, but after only one night, the only road from Ta Lam dike to the village was submerged by floodwater. "Currently, people are facing difficulties in clean water and food because of the rising floodwaters. Children in the hamlet still have to cross the floodwaters to go to school by boat. Hopefully, the floodwaters will go down in the next two days," Mr. Kieu confided. Not only hamlet 12, Hung Long commune, but also other hamlets outside the dike of Hung Linh and Hung Loi communes are being turned into oases because of the floodwaters.

Flood water surrounds houses in hamlet 12, Hung Long commune

For the past two days, the local authorities and people of Nam Thanh commune, Nam Dan district have been living in fear of an accident at the Da Han dam. This is an irrigation project that is in the process of upgrading. Since mid-September, some seepage has appeared behind the dam body. On the evening of September 19, 2013, the heavy rain, threatening safety, forced the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the People's Committee of Nam Dan district to intervene, lowering the spillway to lower the water level in the dam, ensuring the safety of the project.

In the face of the complicated developments of super typhoon USAGI in the East Sea, the storm's circulation is expected to cause heavy to very heavy rain. On September 21, the Provincial Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue issued a telegram requesting the Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control and Search and Rescue of districts, cities, provincial departments, boards and branches; the Provincial Military Command; the Provincial Border Guard Command; Directors of irrigation companies and enterprises; and hydropower companies in the area to continue monitoring the storm's developments and take proactive measures to respond to any situation that may arise.

On the afternoon of September 21, a working group of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development led by Director Ho Ngoc Sy inspected the Da Han dam of Nam Thanh commune and along the Ta Lam dike. According to the inspection results, currently the key dike sections from Vinh city to Nam Dan district are all at a safe level, the Da Han dam incident has been resolved and safety is guaranteed in the next rains. Currently, the construction unit and functional forces including the district and commune are still present at the construction site to be ready to respond and handle any incidents that may occur.

The Standing Office of the Flood and Storm Prevention and Search and Rescue Command of Nghe An province said that currently, 625 large and small dams in the province are ensuring safety. The water storage for dams is reaching from 60% to 100%. Large reservoirs such as Sao River reservoir are discharging floodwaters at 2/3 of their gates, and Mau Valley reservoir is discharging floodwaters at 2/5 of their gates. Some important dams such as Nghi Cong and Khe Lang reservoirs in Nghi Loc district have been treated to lower the spillway to ensure safety. Currently, some provincial roads such as 531, 531B, 534 are still flooded in some sections, and National Highway 46 section Km71+750 with a landslide on the positive slope is currently being repaired.

The search for people and vehicles swept away by floods in Nghia Dan district is still being actively deployed.

Floods in the past few days have left 7 people dead and missing, including 5 people in a tourist car being swept away in Khe Ang, Nghia Hong commune, 1 person in Quang Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district and 1 person in Nghi Cong Bac commune, Nghi Loc district. Floods have also caused a lot of damage to winter crops, vegetables and aquaculture in midland and coastal plain districts. About 1,073.2 hectares of rice, 2,882.6 hectares of corn and vegetables, 311 hectares of sugarcane, 61 hectares of cassava, 410.1 hectares of industrial crops and fruit trees and 278.5 hectares of aquaculture in Anh Son, Tan Ky, Quy Hop, Nghia Dan and Nghi Loc districts are flooded and at risk of total loss.

Currently, the search for the bodies of 5 people and the car swept away by floodwaters in Khe Ang, Nghia Hong commune is being vigorously promoted. Director of the Department of Transport Nguyen Hong Ky, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghia Dan district Vi Van Dinh and Colonel Ha Tan Tien, Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff of the Military Command of Nghe An province directly directed the search work. On the morning of September 21, a team of 7 professional divers from Hung Nguyen district arrived at Khe Ang, directly jumping into the stream to search for people swept away by the flood. These are the people who participated in the search team and salvaged the passenger car swept away by floodwaters in Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinh in 2010. As soon as they arrived, the team of divers jumped into Khe Ang, trying to grope in the fast-flowing water to find the car. Engineers with a modern metal detector system were also deployed along Khe Ang to Hieu River to coordinate with divers to search for the car. In the morning, the search team found the broken third bumper, which was suspected to be from the crashed vehicle. By early afternoon, it seemed that the search team had located the vehicle about 300 meters from the drifting area, but when divers dived into the water to check, it was not. With the participation of more than 300 people including military officers, police, divers, and local residents, the search area was expanded, and some suspicious areas were cordoned off with ropes, but by 5:30 p.m. on September 21, the search had still not yielded results.

Nguyen Khoa