Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a meeting to assess damage, overcome post-storm damage, and respond to storm No. 5.

Also attending at the Forward Command Headquarters bridge were: Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Hien - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Minister of National Defense and members of the Government's working delegation; Lieutenant General Ha Tho Binh - Commander of Military Region 4; Major General Doan Xuan Buong - Party Committee Secretary, Political Commissar of Military Region 4.

The leaders of Nghe An province include comrades: Nguyen Duc Trung - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Le Hong Vinh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

At the meeting, leaders of provinces and cities reported on response preparations, initial damage assessments, solutions to overcome storm damage and proposed solutions for the coming time.

Nghe An Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Duc Trung said that although the development of storm No. 5 is extremely complicated and unprecedented, the forecasting work is very close, thereby helping the province to proactively respond.

The direction of the Secretariat, the Prime Minister and the Government was very timely; key leaders of the Party and State paid special attention to the localities affected by the storm. The Government established a forward command post in Military Region 4, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, to provide close and timely direction.

Up to this point, preliminary statistics up to 5:30 am on August 26, Nghe An province has not had any human damage due to the impact of the storm, only 1 case of electrocution on August 24 while repairing the roof to prevent the storm, 2 people were injured, 91 houses were damaged, many houses had their roofs blown off, 9 classrooms of 2 schools had their roofs blown off, 1 medical facility had its roof blown off.

In addition, Nghe An province has made initial damage assessments and is continuing to count the damage to agriculture, forestry, salt production, livestock, irrigation, transportation, communications, and industry.

Reporting on post-storm recovery and storm response solutions, the Provincial Party Secretary said that the province is currently focusing on directing localities to proactively follow the "4 on-site" principle to overcome initial consequences. Other forces are actively supporting the people.

"The province will focus on repairing connecting infrastructure, especially transportation, communication, and energy infrastructure to ensure direction and operation. Then, overcome the consequences of property damage," said the Provincial Party Secretary, adding that Nghe An will continue to seriously implement the Prime Minister's instructions, closely follow the weather developments, not be negligent or subjective to proactively respond, and prioritize ensuring the safety of people's lives.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Hoang Hiep said that the direction of response to storm No. 5 was carried out quickly and decisively, with unprecedented issues.

Localities are very proactive in implementing response measures.

However, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment said that the work of responding to natural disasters in the coming time needs to be specialized and professionalized when implementing two-level local government. At the same time, it is necessary to develop specific scenarios, close to developments to respond to situations that arise, and arrange forces appropriately.

In particular, attention must be paid to and measures must be organized to respond to the risk of flash floods and landslides in mountainous areas in the coming days when rain continues.

Deputy Minister of National Defense Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Hien requested Party committees and authorities of provinces and cities to coordinate with armed forces to immediately deploy recovery work, not to allow communication to be cut off; deploy facilities to overcome the situation, especially in the West; and ensure food and foodstuffs.

Lieutenant General Ha Tho Binh - Commander of Military Region 4 said that the timely propaganda work of the press agencies helped people see the Government's concern to ensure people's lives and property.

In the coming days, Military Region 4 will ensure forces and means to overcome storm consequences; especially focus on schools to ensure teaching and learning conditions and care for people with meritorious services and policy families.

After listening to the report, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized that this was the second storm that occurred after the two-level local government system came into operation. Storm forecasting was done accurately with information that this was an unusual and complicated storm, so that the central and local levels had time to deploy response measures.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha assessed that the provinces and cities have seriously complied with and fully implemented the instructions and dispatches of the Secretariat and the Prime Minister, paying special attention to key areas and post-storm response work.

Leaders of provinces and cities have organized inspections and directed response work; assigned specific tasks to each comrade in each locality, especially vulnerable areas; thereby promoting the spirit of leadership and direction, contributing to reducing damage caused by storms.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha highly appreciated the provinces of Nghe An, Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh for their quick, timely and drastic response to storm No. 5; at the same time, he asked the provinces of Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Quang Tri and Hue City to re-evaluate their defense capabilities, especially the dike system.

Regarding the forces through actual inspection, the Deputy Prime Minister said that localities must coordinate with military and police forces to calculate and arrange supplies, materials, forces, and vehicles to key points, especially coastal areas, to respond promptly when situations arise.

To overcome the consequences of storm No. 5, the Deputy Prime Minister requested to maintain high military and police forces to overcome the damage, in which priority is given to educational and medical facilities; priority is given to policy beneficiaries and the poor with the view of State support, to soon reorganize teaching and learning activities, take care of people's health, and stabilize life.

Quang Tri, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh provinces and Hue city pay attention to mountainous areas, determining that flood and landslide prevention must be higher than storm prevention; organize inspections of densely populated areas in streams, creeks and rivers to take timely measures, especially evacuating people to safety.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment continues to strictly direct and strictly implement weather forecasting; review all plans and scenarios for inter-reservoir operations to ensure safety. Other ministries and sectors strictly carry out assigned tasks; infrastructure and technical providers have plans to harden the power and information systems.

Pham Bang