Storms, floods cause economic loss of over 730 million USD: Gov’t report

Hanoi (VNA) – Since late September, 235 people have been reported dead and missing by consecutive storms and floods, which have also caused an estimated economic loss of about 17 trillion VND (733.4 million USD).

The figures were released in a Government report on disaster prevention and control in the central region reported to the National Assembly on November 2.

In the document, the Government defined six urgent tasks. Specifically, it will mobilise all forces and equipment to find missing victims, including those of landslides at Rao Trang 3 Hydro-power Plant construction site in Thua Thien-Hue, in Quang Nam’s Nam Tra My and Phuoc Son districts and fishermen of Binh Dinh’s two fishing vessels, while requesting safety for search and rescue forces.

The Government will focus on relief activities to help locals, especially those in far-flung areas, stabilise their life; supporting them in house repair and providing food and medicine for them; visiting and encouraging families of the victims.

The Ministries, sectors and localities will quickly restore damaged infrastructure facilities, especially the power supply system, transport, dykes, schools and hospitals, while concentrating on environment sanitation, especially water for daily activities, to prevent diseases from breaking out.

Attention will also be paid to developments of storm Goni, which is forecast to affect the central region in the coming days, and actively evacuate people out of dangerous areas.

For long-term missions, the Government will direct the specific assessment and building of different climate change scenarios to have appropriate response solutions.

It will improve the quality of disaster forecasts and warning, speed up the making of maps warning risks of landslides and flash floods, and add disaster prevention and response and consequence handling into development plans and strategies of each sector and locality.

The Government, ministries, sectors and localities will also prioritise allocating money in a mid-term public investment plan for 2021-2025 and annual central and local budget estimates for disaster prevention and control and search and rescue missions./.