Coping with storms in mountainous areas

(Baonghean) - Recently, thunderstorms and whirlwinds have frequently occurred in the mountainous areas of western Nghe An. In particular, there was a thunderstorm and whirlwind in Que Phong for 3 consecutive days in early May, causing great damage to the people. Or on the afternoon of May 31 in Duc Son commune (Anh Son), a whirlwind occurred, destroying a newly built primary school worth nearly 4 billion VND; on June 1 in Que Son and Tien Phong communes (Que Phong), another whirlwind occurred, causing nearly 100 houses to collapse and their roofs to blow off...

Studying some places where tornadoes occur in the highlands, where ethnic minorities live, many people said that every time the weather changes, tornadoes occur. And recently, the wind intensity and the level of damage caused by tornadoes have become increasingly greater. There are areas where tornadoes occur frequently and cause great damage, people almost "feel" the development that will lead to tornadoes, but do not know how to avoid them.

One of the characteristics of the long-standing settlements of the Thai and Khmu people is to choose the foothills, near rivers and streams to build houses. With the above method of building houses, people can not only easily get water for daily life, raising livestock... but also avoid whirlwinds. But recently, due to the impact of climate change and weather, some residential areas of the Thai people, due to being too close to streams, especially areas where flash floods and landslides often occur, have to be relocated to higher areas. However, while arranging the construction of relocation housing areas or resettlement of residential areas, especially hydropower projects in mountainous areas, it is not known whether due to the lack of consultation and criticism from the local side or the investors have not taken into account, so when building new houses for people, they are built in too high a position, even on the top of a hill, so the risk of heavy damage every time a whirlwind occurs is very clear. Talking about this issue, a leader of Que Phong district admitted: Thai people often live in stilt houses, so when building houses in areas where tornadoes often occur, building them on high hills is clearly not suitable, if not taboo. In the process of setting up resettlement projects, it is mainly the investor who chooses, partly because the role and voice of the district is not strong enough, so in reality, every time a tornado occurs, the above areas suffer the most damage...

Therefore, to proactively respond to climate change and extreme weather manifestations in the mountainous areas of our province today, on the one hand, localities need to guide people on preventive measures and minimize the risk of damage; on the other hand, when arranging concentrated residential areas, it is necessary to pay attention to absorbing and referring to the experience of organizing residential areas of indigenous people; if necessary, consult with managers and experienced people in the locality to choose locations and positions to avoid landslide areas and areas where whirlwinds often occur. In addition, the hydrometeorological agency needs to have statistics and assessments on the impact of hydroelectric reservoir areas on weather and climate to make general recommendations to build safe tornado-proof residential areas in the future. Another opinion is that whirlwinds are an extreme manifestation of weather, but the fact that whirlwinds occur continuously in areas with hydroelectric reservoirs, unlike before, requires further survey and research by specialized agencies...

Ha Phuong