The Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control’s permanent board and the Department of Disaster Prevention and Control for the Central region will establish two working groups to aid flood recovery in the Central provinces.

The agreement was made during a teleconference on November 2 chaired by Tran Quang Hoai, Deputy Director of the General Department of Irrigation at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and permanent member of the steering committee.

The provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh were asked to evacuate residents to safe ground and provide them with daily necessities.

Other local administrations must continue to keep track of the situation to devise precautionary measures.

According to the Quang Tri authorities, over the past two days, the province has witnessed heavy rains on a large scale with rainfall from 170-220mm, particularly up to more than 480mm upstream the Hieu River, causing local flooding in some areas.

The hard-hit communes of Cam Tuyen, Cam Thuy, Cam Hieu and Cam Thanh and the town of Cam Lo in a district of the same name have seen more than 2,140 houses flooded, including 860 under 1-3m of water, and hundreds of hectares of crops inundated.

This morning, the body of Hoang Huu Thanh, a resident of Vinh An Hamlet, Cam Hieu Commune, Cam Lo District, was found. Yesterday morning, Thanh and his brother Hoang Huu Toan were swept away by floods while moving their assets to higher ground. Toan was fortunately saved, but Thanh had gone missing.

Right since the flooding first occurred, Quang Tri’s military and police forces have mobilised more than 1,000 officers and soldiers and dozens of canoes to distribute aid and evacuate people from low-lying areas.

In the province of Quang Binh, the flooding in the past two days has left two people missing and five injured. More than 18,000 houses have been inundated. Ba Don Town and Tuyen Hoa District have suffered the most, with over 13,800 houses flooded.

This morning, a student in Son Thuy Commune, Le Thuy District went missing while going to school by boat. The Quang Binh Department of Education and Training shut down schools in flooded areas, while others in higher places were given autonomy on whether to hold classes.

Traffic on National Highway 1A, the Ho Chi Minh Highway and the North–South Railway running through Quang Binh is still fragmented. On the morning of November 2, six cars belonging to two relief teams got stuck on National Highway 12A and were guided to safe ground.

From October 29 to November 1, heavy rains measuring from 500-600mm in the province of Ha Tinh submerged nearly 4,000 households in 29 communes and wards, of which Huong Khe District was the hardest hit with fifteen communes and over 2,600 houses seriously flooded from 1-2m, in addition to fourteen communes and wards containing nearly 1,400 households in Ky Anh Town and Cam Xuyen District.

On the morning of November 1, all 64 schools, with 25,000 students, in the district of Huong Khe had to close due to the floods, while nearly 21,000 students in Ky Anh District could not go to school.

Previously, torrential rains lasting from October 12-16 in Ha Tinh had inundated 108 communes and wards with more than 32,000 flooded. Nine people lost their lives while 36 were wounded, and thousands of hectares of crops and facilities were damaged, causing a total estimated damage of over VND1 trillion (US$45 million).

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF) said that heavy rains would continue in the Central region until November 4, with average total rainfall of 100-250mm, particularly 250-400mm or even over 400mm in the localities of Thua Thien–Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai.

As of this morning, flooding on the Ngan Sau River in Ha Tinh Province continue to rise, having reached 10.2m, while water levels in rivers in Quang Nam and Binh Dinh are also up.

Severe flooding continues in the districts of Huong Son, Huong Khe, Vu Quang, Cam Xuyen, and Duc Tho in Ha Tinh; Minh Hoa, Tuyen Hoa, Bo Trach, Quang Trach and Le Thuy Districts and Ba Don town in Quang Binh; and Cam Lo District in Quang Tri.

A high risk of flash floods on small rivers and streams and landslides is predicted in low-lying areas from Thua Thien–Hue to Binh Dinh. The NCHMF has also issued warnings over the safety of reservoirs during floods in the Central provinces, especially from Thua Thien–Hue to Binh Dinh.

According to the Irrigation Management Department, water reservoirs in the North, Centre and South reached 50-90% of their designed capacity as of November 1.

At 6am the same day, two reservoirs in the Central region and eight others in the Central Highlands flushed water out, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Nhan Dan