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Plans to rescue and evacuate people out of flooded areas are checked

Since early 2020, natural disasters have continued to develop in an extreme and unusual way. Seven storms and hail over a large area across the country have occurred; severe droughts and saltwater intrusion in the Mekong delta have persisted, showing that climate change is developing extremely complicatedly. In late April 2020, natural disasters killed and caused 11 people to be missing, and more than 44,000 houses to collapse and damaged more than 100,000 hectares of rice and crops with a total economic loss of over VND3,100 billion.

In 2019, natural calamities did not take place rapidly and fiercely but there occurred a lot of extreme and anomalous factors throughout the country. Particularly, the damage caused by natural disasters in 2019 was over VND7,000 billion, considerably decreased compared to the estimated damage in 2018, which was estimated at nearly VND20,000 billion; natural disasters killed and caused 133 people to be missing. To prevent natural disasters and ensure the four on-the-spots motto, on-site forces play a key role in responding quickly and promptly to support and help people.

Also, the State Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said: “Grassroots-level assault forces must be trained and communes must be instructed to focus on establishing assault forces to deal with rapidly-coming floodwater and so on and these are extremely valuable examples.”

According to the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecast, from now to the end of 2020 there will be about 11 to 13 storms and tropical depressions operating in the South China Sea, 5 to 6 storms of which directly affect the mainland and storms are mainly concentrated in central and southern regions in the second half of 2020. To minimize people’s damage, forecasting and disseminating propaganda information at grassroots levels must come first.

Duy Minh (Van Minh)