Right after tropical low pressure weakened, prolong heavy rain accompanied with high tide rise caused flooding at many provincial localities. Binh Duong Newspaper updated swiftly on responding and overcoming flood incidents.
* At Thuan An town, at dawn of November 7th, Saigon-riverside communes were extensively
flooded, namely, quarters of Binh Duc 1, Binh Duc 2, Long Thoi, Hoa Long, Nguyen Trai of Lai Thieu ward. At Binh Nham commune, total flooded area was about 50ha with some areas up to 0.3 – 0.7m under water. Particularly, at Vinh Phu ward, high tide overflowed banks, affected hundreds of households.
Dyke system at Vinh Phu ward (Thuan An town) was reinforced timely to reduce effects of high tide rise.
Thanh Loc quarter of An Thanh ward was submerged totally about 40ha up to 0.7m under water. According to An Son commune’s government, 3ha of dyke overflowed, causing effects on 10 families. Binh Hoa ward was also flooded, affecting 50 families. Local government assisted people to move assets to safe locations.
Thuan An town People’s Committee Vice Chairman Dang Van Ba said, on November 7th, Thuan An town’s Flood and Storm Preventing Steering Committee organized an emergency meeting to inform the flooding situation, directed localities to aid people in clearing the flow, reinforce dykes, help flooded families to resettle.
* At Thu Dau Mot City, at 6 AM on November 7th, tides of Saigon River suddenly surged, overflowed into wards of Chanh Nghia and Phu Tho, causing widespread flooding. There were about 300 houses were up to 1m under water. However, owing to early announcement and timely assist of local government, assets of people were not much damaged. Many households even evacuated from flooded areas from evening of November 6th.
Tran Quang Vinh at Phu Tho ward, TDM City was moving furniture to avoid floodwater.
Phu Tho ward People’s Committee Vice Chairman Vo Duc Phong said: “Right from evening of November 6th, we reinforced damaged embankments. Thus floodwater did not burst dams and will go down soon”.
Early November 7th, quarter 8 and 9 of Chanh Nghia ward were heavily submerged. There were about 200 households being up to 0.5m under water. Chanh Nghia ward People’s Committee Vice Chairman Vo Van Chi said: “From November 6th, we assisted people in flood prevention, thus heavy damages did not occurred. We also fortified all dykes, hence floodwater did not overflow”.
Mr. Pham Van Ta, Deputy Head of TDM City’s Flood and Storm Preventing Committee, said, thanks to swift response, there were not heavy damages at TDM City, but some localities were still flooded because of high tide rise. TDM City is planning to strengthen Phu Tho dam to limit tides, and reduce negative effects on people”.
* At Tan Uyen district, on November 7th, People’s Committee Vice Chairman cum Head of Flood and Strom Preventing Committee Vo Van Tinh said, the district is still going on duty 24/24 to cope timely with incidents may occur. Communes of Thanh Phuoc, Lac An, Thuong Tan, Tan My, and Thai Hoa town are the most vulnerable localities. Da Ban lake, Doc Nhan lake are being watched carefully in order to handle high tide rise. Discharge of Tri An reservoir is also updated regularly.
Evening November 6th, Flood and Storm Preventing Committee of Lac An commune, Tan Uyen district evacuated people’s assets to safe locations.
Tropical low pressure, and heavy rain accompanied with high tide rise have affected many localities in the province. Nevertheless, thanks to proper and timely direction of Flood and Storm Preventing Steering Committee, damage level was restrained significantly. After receiving emergency announcement from the Central Flood and Storm Preventing Steering Committee, provincial People’s Committee promulgated Directive 15 in the evening of November 5th to direct localities to prevent flood incident. Over 10,000 people including officials, army force, and people took part in the prevention. Dyke system along Saigon River extending from Vinh Phu (Thuan An town) to Phu An (Ben Cat district) was held up successfully. Key positions like Vinh Phu, Binh Nham, and Chanh My, were also reinforced.
After this disaster, Binh Duong province was proactive in dealing with unusual climate change, thanks to swift and proper direction of provincial Flood and Storm Preventing Committee and efforts of localities and people.
Reported by Group of Reporters – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
