At a meeting on August 2 to update the developments of the storm, Chairman of the Hai Phong municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Van Tung asked members of the municipal Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue, heads of People’s Committees of districts in the city, departments, agencies and units to closely follow the developments of the storm to implement appropriate plans to cope with Wipha.
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Troops of Cat Hai district help local people strengthen their houses. |
As a core force in coping with the storm in the city, the Hai Phong municipal Military Command took various measures to ensure safety for barracks and mobilized thousands of troops and militiamen to evacuate people to safer places and keep watch around the clock to deal with arising circumstances.
The military command’s Armored Battalion 34 deployed their troops to trim trees and strengthen warehouses to ensure safety of military equipment. The unit’s troops are ready to help people in storm-hit localities on request.
Before the storm, the municipal People’s Committee sent working groups to inspect the natural disaster prevention work in key localities, such as Do Son, Duong Kinh and Thuy Nguyen. Cat Hai district’s Office for Flood and Storm Prevention checked essential dikes and developed disaster relief plans. Lieutenant Colonel Pham Van Bao, Deputy Chief of the district’s Military Command, said that the locality set up two command posts in Cat Ba and Cat Hai islands and mobilized militiamen to work with local forces and people to cope with the storm. The district’s armed forces also helped fishermen taking shelters and local people consolidate their houses and evacuated people in Cat Ba bay and Gia Luan and Beo wharves to safer places.
Apart from Hai Phong, Quang Ninh province is also forecast to be strongly hit by the storm. Therefore, the Military Region 3 Command established a command post, led by Major General Do Phuong Thuan, the military region’s Deputy Commander. According to Senior Colonel Le Dinh Thuong, Commander of the provincial Military Command, all troops have been mobilized for the mission. They carefully checked barracks and warehouses to ensure safety of weapons, military equipment, ammunition and vehicles and closely coordinated with local units to effectively cope with the storm
The province’s military command mobilized more than 2,700 troops and militiamen and 50 vehicles of different kinds for search and rescue and natural disaster mitigation missions. On August 2, relevant forces helped around 9,000 fishing boats take shelters and closely followed developments of the storm to take suitable measures.
Similarly, working groups of the Thai Binh provincial Military Command checked key dikes, personnel and vehicles reserved for search and rescue missions in Tien Hai and Thai Thuy districts. Accordingly, three 30-member rescue teams equipped with speedboats and two medical ones are ready for missions.
Translated by Tran Hoai