Hanoi (VNA) - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on November 20 evening issued another urgent dispatch ordering authorities to step up rescue and relief efforts as severe flooding continues to ravage the central region.
The dispatch followed days of torrential rain that pushed river levels from Quang Tri to Khanh Hoa above alarm levels 2 and 3, with several rivers in Dak Lak and Khanh Hoa exceeding historical flood peaks.
More than 52,000 houses in 128 communes and wards across Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Khanh Hoa and Lam Dong provinces remain submerged, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Fast-flowing floodwaters have isolated numerous residential areas, cutting off road access and posing a risk of imminent shortages of food and basic supplies.
The Government and the PM have been directing proactive flood response measures since the floods began, with the army, police, local authorities, and residents acting urgently and drastically to mitigate damage. To date, 18,408 households, or 61,035 people, have been evacuated from landslide-and flood-prone zones.
To prevent further loss of life and property, the PM asked Party Secretaries and chairpersons of the People’s Committees of central provinces, particularly Khanh Hoa, Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Lam Dong, to intensify post-flood recovery in line with earlier dispatches.
Local Party committees and authorities must deploy all available forces and resources, by any means necessary, to reach every isolated or heavily inundated area and rescue trapped residents.
Authorities were ordered to urgently deliver adequate food, drinking water and essential goods to affected households, with youth and women’s unions tasked with preparing and distributing meals. Evacuations must continue, relocating residents to the safest locations possible, even if it means using government offices, police stations and military facilities as temporary shelters, while treating them with attentive care.
Officials must personally visit affected families to provide encouragement and promptly roll out maximum support policies, with priority given to those that lost their relatives, reported missing persons, or watched their homes swept away or destroyed. A comprehensive damage assessment is also required.
Additional tasks were also assigned to relevant ministries, Office of the National Civil Defence Steering Committee, and the mass media./.
