Calls for better preparedness in Vietnam after Typhoon Yagi

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM — Typhoon Yagi, which hit Vietnam earlier this month, exposed the country's lack of preparedness for extreme weather and raised concerns more storms could hit the country this rainy season, experts told VOA.

The storm hit northern Vietnam September 7. It resulted in 292 deaths. Thirty-eight people remain missing and over 73,000 homes have been flooded, authorities say. In northwestern Lao Cai province, an entire hamlet was swept away in a landslide on September 12, killing 30 people, while dozens are still missing.

Presiding over a conference on the aftermath of the typhoon this week, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh honed in on the need for accurate forecasting, timely communication and swift, effective decision-making.

"We have tried our best. We've sought the best solutions available in these circumstances, but no loss can compensate for the lives lost and the suffering of the people," he said September 15.

A 33-year-old Lao Cai schoolteacher called the storm's impact on his community devastating.

"My colleagues’ houses collapsed and their furniture floated away. Three or four of my students have family members who died from the landslide. Other students’ houses got flooded," he told VOA in Vietnamese on September 18, asking to withhold his name due to the sensitivity of speaking to the media.

"After the flood receded, the mud was up to my chest," he said.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said Sunday that northern and north-central Vietnam may face one or two more typhoons before the end of September and there's still danger of landslides.

"Even as rains subside, landslide risks remain high, especially on the slopes of mountainous regions in the north," the ministry stated.

With heavy rains and rising water levels in the upper Mekong region, Vietnam's Southern Institute for Water Resources Planning issued a flood warning Monday for low-lying and riverside areas in the southern provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, and Long An.

Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center's Southeast Asia Program in Washington and co-lead of the Mekong Dam Monitor, warned that the country will face more extreme weather.

"Storms like Yagi will only become more frequent. It's also possible that another one, two, or three will happen this wet season," he told VOA by phone September 13.

"Communities are still not ready and it is the responsibility of governments or international aid organizations to help these communities to better prepare," he said.

Unprepared

Despite more than a week of advance warning, locals were poorly prepared for the typhoon, Eyler said.

"Communities were not prepared for this and neither were government response mechanisms in any of the countries that were impacted," he said.

Eyler saw on social media that people were on boats in Halong Bay in northern Vietnam during the storm, people were standing next to glass windows and doors that could easily swing open, and in China, people stood in line at amusement parks during the storm.

"There's a large gap in emergency early-warning messaging from the government and then just a general lack of preparedness about what one should do as an individual during a time of extreme crisis," Eyler said.

The Lao Cai teacher said people in his town had been warned about the incoming typhoon but did not expect the severity of the storm.

"There was notice but the damage was not completely avoided," he said. "We did not predict such a strong storm. There has never been such a strong storm."

Vulnerable hit hardest

Eyler said that during a climate change-intensified disaster like Typhoon Yagi, the effects are "amplified much more on the poorer and vulnerable people."

"Those who were killed or those who were injured were out and about during the storm," he said. "They couldn't afford to stop what they are doing because they need to carry on their livelihoods."

Mimi Vu, a Ho Chi Minh City-based migration and trafficking expert, said that people who depend on day-to-day earnings are at greatest risk.

"For them to stop working means that they're not able to put food on the table," she said by phone Wednesday. "It's a matter of survival for a lot of them and they're willing to take the risk or to support their families."

Vu said efforts to fight global warming are going too slowly to keep up with the needs of many affected by extreme weather.

"We're trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions… but it's not happening fast enough and by enough influential entities to make a difference right now," she said.

We need to help "these underserved communities prepare for the worst that's coming," she added. "Efforts have to be increased now in changing the way we live and operate in the world so that we can lessen the impact."

A woman in her 30s in Bac Giang province told VOA she is helping to get necessities to people in Van Ha commune, a village in the Viet Yen district of Bac Giang, which has been isolated by floods and without power for a week.

"I work for the government and we are helping the people here," she said in Vietnamese on September 14, asking to withhold her name. "My duty is supporting other relief groups such as how to get into the village and how to transport food and goods."

Eyler said that governments need to increase data sharing to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and upstream dams in China and the damming of Southeast Asia's river systems more broadly increase the dangers of storms.

"The uses of dams are often described as having the potential for flood control but when these major events happen like this I think the myth of dams as flood control really comes undone," he said. "[Dams] exacerbate risks for vulnerable communities downstream."