HÀ NỘI – The Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Control and the National Committee for Search and Rescue held a teleconference yesterday to discuss measures to cope with storm Mirinae – the first to batter Việt Nam this year.
Authorities of Quảng Ninh, Hải Phòng, Thái Bình, Nam Định, Hà Giang, Lạng Sơn, Cao Bằng, Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, Tuyên Quang, Bắc Ninh and Bình Định attended the event.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Đức Phát, who is also head of the central steering committee, chaired the teleconference. Phát called for implementation of the National Committee for Search and Rescue’s urgent order to cope with the storm - including managing coastal tourist activities, evacuating landslide-prone areas in Quảng Ninh and Hải Phòng, and ensuring the safety of islanders and aquaculture zones.
Urgent tasks mentioned in the order should be performed before 6pm today.
Members of the central steering committee were assigned to make fact-finding trips to the northern provinces of Thái Nguyên, Bắc Giang and Bắc Ninh to inspect disaster prevention and control.
According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, by 1pm yesterday, the storm was centered at about 18.3 degrees north latitude and 112.1 degrees east longitude, about 170km north of Việt Nam’s Hoàng Sa (Paracel) archipelago.
The storm is forecast to move west-northwest in the next 24 hours, at a speed of up to 20km per hour.
The northeastern and northern mountainous areas are forecast to experience heavy rains this evening.
Border guards from Quảng Ninh to Phú Yên provinces will be on duty round-the-clock, along with 67 boats, 205 canoes and 352 automobiles.
The Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam Television, and Radio the Voice of Vietnam will regularly update the latest information about the storm for the public.
The Department of Cultivation said farming in the 11 affected provinces would likely to be hit by the typhoon.

The National Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control and the National Committee for Search and Rescue sent an announcement yesterday telling provincial and local authorities in coastal provinces to prepare for the storm. They urged local authorities of the affected provinces to update information about the storm on the media system regularly, to help offshore ships and boats find shelter and navigate away from dangerous areas.

Local residents, aquaculture production enterprises, and tourism venues near coastal areas should be warned about the storm, the announcement said.

Search and rescue drill
 

Yesterday nearly 200 members of the Vietnamese border guard forces, medical teams and rescue forces practised Search and Rescue techniques during a drill on the Hàn River of Đà Nẵng City.
The drill - part of the on-going Pacific Partnership 2016 (PP16) in Đà Nẵng, with the participation of partner nations such as Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Palau, the Philippines, South Korea, Singapore, Timor Leste, the United Kingdom, the US and Việt Nam - aims to demonstrate practical joint-exercise search and rescue activities in the sea.
The vice chairman of the central city’s People’s Committee, Hồ Kỳ Minh, said the training was part of disaster preparedness for future mega storms which may occur in the coastal city.
Pacific Partnership 16 will continue to Malaysia and Indonesia, after joint activities in Việt Nam. – VNS