Natural disasters claim 68 lives in H1

Viet Nam coped with 74 incidents of torrential rains and landslides, 77 devastating thunderstorms, 113 earthquakes, two cold spells which caused 68 deaths and missing in the first half of this year. Meanwhile, total cost of natural disasters was estimated at over VND 4 trillion (US$ 175 million) of economic damage.

The Southeast Asian country houses 2,741 kilometers of dyke from grade 3 to special level. However, 242 key points and more than 7,600 cases of violations have not been resolved.

The VDMA forecast that in the rest of 2022, there will be strong storms and big floods, threatening the safety of the dyke system.

The National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting reported that a tropical depression in the East Sea developed into a storm on Thursday morning, marking the first tropical storm to hit the Southeast Asian country this year.

The storm, named Chaba, was located 400 kilometers east of Viet Nam's Hoang Sa (Paracel) archipelago at 10:00 am on Thursday.  

The National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control has asked authorities in the coastal localities from northern Quang Ninh Province to south-central Binh Dinh Province to make necessary preparations.

Earlier, the National Centre for Hydrometeorological Forecasting reported that natural disasters are forecast to be more complicated, fierce and unpredictable than in 2022 with unusual heavy rainfalls in the last months of the year and storms likely to have unusual trajectories.

To proactively respond to natural disasters, the Standing Office of the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control asked localities to focus on improving the quality of natural disaster forecast and warning and rescue work and preparing plans for flood prevention in the downstream areas.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will be in charge of guiding localities to change crops to proactively adapt and reduce damage caused by natural disasters, speeding up the upgrade of dykes to ensure people's safety in the rainy season./.