Vietnam Weathers Ebb
HANOI - When the bamboo stalks grow inward or the ants climb into the rafters, people warn that it's time to brace for the worst.
In Vietnam, where typhoons, monsoons and floods routinely batter the land, locals can recite a litany of other ways to predict the rains that inevitably come their way. Weathering the ebb and flow of flood season is a way of life here.
But this past year was worse than usual, with devastating floods in November and December that killed more than 700 people, caused $285 million in damage and set back development of central Vietnam by a decade.
In the wake of such massive death and destruction, Vietnam's leaders are concluding that short-term relief and stoic endurance are not enough.
``We need to find ways to coexist in harmony with floods and minimize the impacts of natural disasters,'' Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam said as he made a plea to international donors for assistance during an annual meeting last month.
In the meantime, Bui Thi Hoa and her family, who have farmed in central Quang Nam province for generations, have learned to cope with the annual cycle.
The family's most valuable possessions — two beds, a wooden chest, a rickety table — are routinely strung up by ropes from the ceiling during flood season. Sacks of rice seed, intended for the winter crop plantings, are stowed up in the rafters.
Carrying her 4-year-old son in her arms, Hoa, 27, was resigned about the recent flooding that destroyed the family's newly replanted rice field.
``Every year, the rains come,'' she said. ``Sometimes the water is up to my ankles, sometimes as high as my knees. But every year the floods come. What can we do? We have no choice but to bear it.''
The floodwaters reached epic proportions in November when seven feet of rainfall in three days deluged the seven central provinces — home to 7 million people.
Considered one of the worst floods of the century, the downpours turned small towns and villages into isolated islands while paralyzing railways and roads.
Vietnam launched its largest-ever emergency relief effort, winning international praise for the rapid response. With the military mobilized for the first time during a natural disaster, emergency food and medicine were delivered by helicopter 48 hours after the magnitude of the disaster became evident.
Four weeks later, a second round of flooding hit the already-soaked region. Rivers again overflowed and reservoirs threatened to burst.
With mounting evidence that the intensity and frequency of natural disasters will only increase in coming years because of global weather shifts, Vietnam's top leaders acknowledged the need for long-term disaster management plans.
Relief agencies had begun long-range efforts before the recent floods. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies sent workers early in the year to the flood-prone area to assess disaster contingencies.
In September, 2,450 families across the central provinces were given house-strengthening kits that included steel reinforcements for the walls. The typical bamboo-frame homes are rarely able to withstand strong winds and rain.
As the recent floods destroyed tens of thousands of homes, only one of the reinforced houses were damaged.
``People told us that those homes saved them, their families and their neighbors,'' said Vu Minh Hai, the Red Cross' disaster preparedness officer.
The agency, which works with the Vietnam Red Cross, has also suggested building a second story on schools and a large platform over the central market, creating higher ground.
``Yes, people have lived with flooding all their lives, but it doesn't mean they know how to prepare for one,'' Hai said. ``We are teaching them to strengthen their homes and have emergency food and water stored away. We can't prevent the flood, but we hope to minimize the damage.''
Once Vietnamese are taught how to prepare for disasters, their natural resilience will help them endure, she said.
Just days after the floods peaked and the water began receding, residents patiently picked up hammers, brooms, shovels and buckets as they began the slow task of cleaning up the debris that swamped their homes.
``If you live here a long time, you know there's no year when it doesn't flood,'' Nguyen Van Thanh said as he wielded a hammer atop his flattened house.
Thanh, a lifelong resident of Quang Nam, was prosaic: ``You can lose your home, your livestock, your rice crops. But if you survive, you can still start over.''
Associated Press - January 5, 2000.
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