Hanoi ready to urgently evacuate 30,000 people due to floods

The Prime Minister directly commanded at night in the Trung Gia flood area.

On the evening of October 9, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was present at Trung Gia commune (Soc Son district, Hanoi ) to directly inspect and direct emergency response when floodwater from Cau river and Ca Lo river overflowed Luong Phuc dike, threatening residential areas inside the dike.

Also attending were Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Bui Thi Minh Hoai, Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Nguyen Manh Quyen and representatives of functional forces.

The Prime Minister said he arrived at the scene just three minutes after receiving the urgent information, and asked Hanoi to immediately activate large-scale evacuation plans to avoid putting people in dangerous situations when floodwaters suddenly rise.

Ready to urgently evacuate 30,000 people at night

At an urgent meeting right next to the critical dike, the Prime Minister directed Hanoi to prepare enough vehicles, vehicles, and human resources to evacuate 30,000 people in case the dike breaks or overflows. The number of vehicles, forces, and assembly areas must be clearly assigned, ensuring that all situations can be promptly responded to at night.

If the Cong River dike is still safe, people will not have to leave; but in the worst-case scenario, the evacuation must be quick, orderly and absolutely safe. Local authorities are required to make public and transparent announcements so that people are aware of the situation and ready to move when ordered.

Immediately following the Prime Minister’s directive, two army divisions stationed in Hanoi were mobilized, ready to participate in search and rescue, ensure security and assist in evacuating people. Priority was given to evacuating the elderly, children and disabled people from dangerous areas first.

The Prime Minister also asked the authorities to prepare reception points for evacuees at schools, cultural houses, sports areas, and stock up on food, drinking water, and temporary accommodation for people. The Prime Minister asked all levels to absolutely not be subjective, even for a few hours.

Hanoi urgently deploys response and evacuation plan

Receiving the direction, Secretary of the City Party Committee Bui Thi Minh Hoai affirmed that the city has clearly assigned tasks to each unit, expanded the response scale, and is ready to evacuate 30,000 people from the dangerous area. The People's Committee of Trung Gia commune also held an urgent meeting that night to deploy evacuation measures when necessary.

On the same afternoon, the Cau River water level at Luong Phuc station reached 9.99m, 1.99m higher than the alarm level 3. The rapid rise in water level has cut off many roads, causing traffic to be almost paralyzed. National Highway 3 and inter-commune roads were flooded from 1.2 to 1.5m deep, many residential areas were completely isolated.

Thousands of households in Trung Gia commune (Hanoi) were isolated due to the water level of Cau and Ca Lo rivers rising above alarm level 3. Photo: Song Bui

More than 14,000 people have been evacuated, thousands of forces are on duty all night.

According to preliminary statistics, the entire Trung Gia commune has 3,799 households with more than 14,000 people directly affected by the flood. The civil defense force has been mobilized to the maximum, organizing rescue teams with boats and specialized vehicles to evacuate people from deep flooded areas, while providing food, clean water and necessities to isolated households.

The right dike of Cau Bridge is still a hot spot with many landslides, in which the section K18+500 to K26+000 is 7.5km long, with flooding height from 0.1 to 0.3m.

The government has mobilized thousands of people, including 600 military officers and soldiers, to reinforce the dike and build sand fences, covering them with waterproof tarpaulins to prevent the risk of rupture.

The rescue forces remained on duty at 100% all night, closely monitoring the water levels of the Cau and Ca Lo rivers. The Tan Hung, Cam Ha II, Tang Long and Tien Tao pumping stations were operated at full capacity to reduce pressure on the inner dike area.

Source: https://baonghean.vn/ha-noi-san-sang-di-doi-khan-30-000-nguoi-vi-lu-10307960.html