Heavy rains, floods cause severe damage in northern localities

Floods damage houses, properties and crops in Nam Tha and Liem Phu communes in Van Ban district, Lao Cai province

Initial reports show that the incidents killed six people in the northern mountainous province of Yen Bai, while 15 others are missing in the same locality.

Torrential rains and floods also destroyed 98 houses, flooded 827 others, and forced 365 households to evacuate, while killing nearly 4,000 heads of poultry and livestock. Meanwhile, over 80,000ha of rice and crops and 2,868ha of aquatic areas had been flooded. Traffic has also been affected as many roads have flooded or suffered from landslides.

In Lao Cai province, flash floods caused damage to three local hydropower plants, forcing Nam Tha 4, 5 and 6 to stop generating electricity. The locale suffered estimated damage worth VND14 billion.

Flash floods surge on rivers and streams in Van Ban district, Lao Cai province

Meanwhile, the estimated damage caused by natural disasters in Lang Chanh district (Thanh Hoa province) alone has surged to over VND10 billion.

Against the complex developments of natural disasters, on July 20, the Prime Minister sent Official Telegraph No. 931/CĐ-TTg requesting that the local authorities in the Northern and Northern Central provinces, especially Thanh Hoa and Yen Bai, as well as the ministries and agencies concerned, to immediately deploy disaster response plans.

Provincial leaders were urged to directly travel to key areas in order to direct the response, while mobilising forces and means to search for the missing persons. They were also asked to deploy missions to visit and support the affected families, provide shelter for displaced households and offer them emergency relief.

Floods cause damage in Tri Nang commune, Lang Chanh district, Thanh Hoa province

Localities were required to inspect areas at high risk of landslides and floods to actively undertake emergency evacuations to ensure the safety of local people. Post-disaster recovery was also urged immediately after the disasters to restore damaged infrastructure.

The same day, the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control sent an official letter No. 349 to coastal provinces and cities from Quang Ninh to Khanh Hoa in response to a new tropical depression in the East Sea, urging them to closely monitor the evolution of the tropical depression to instruct ships to move out of dangerous areas and promptly handle potential bad situations.

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF) said that yesterday afternoon a low pressure area has strengthened in power in the northern part of the East Sea, moving slowly eastward at a speed of 5 km per hour. Meanwhile, another new tropical depression situated in the Gulf of Tonkin is likely to form by tomorrow.

Location and direction of a new tropical low pressure in the East Sea (Photo: nchmf.gov.vn)

The Lim Dam in Dong Thanh commune, in Nghe An province’s Yen Thanh district, broken by floods

The NCHMF and several international forecasting agencies have predicted that there will probably be heavy rains with an extremely large volume of rainfall in the northeastern region on July 23, with the focus in Quang Ninh and Lang Son provinces, which will be extended to the whole of the North Vietnam on July 24 to 26.

The current heavy downpours are forecast to last for the next few days. Last night, the northern provinces suffered heavy rains with rainfall ranging from 20-40mm.

The national meteorological agency has warned of the risks of floods and landslides in the northern and north central localities of Son La, Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang, Cao Bang, Lang Son and Quang Ninh.

Armed forces help the locals in Ba Che town (Quang Ninh province) overcome the consequences of heavy rains and floods

A landslide on the National Highway No. 6 through Long Luong commune, Van Ho district, Son La province

Rice fields in Thanh Hoa province immersed in flood water

NDO