On January 17, a working mission from the northern province of Ninh Binh visited and presented gifts to support locals in the provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, with VND1 billion provided to each locality to assist in overcoming the consequences of continuous storms and flooding last year.
Quang Binh Province has issued a decision on the allocation of funds to support the construction of flood-proof houses for 134 disadvantaged coastal households in the districts of Tuyen Hoa, Le Thuy, Quang Ninh, Quang Trach and Bo Trach, along with those in Ba Don Town.
After the series of natural disasters last year, Quang Nam Province has nearly 45,000 damaged houses in need of repair. The province has urgently built temporary houses for locals hit by landslides and those in ethnic minority communities. Up until now, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee - Quang Nam Chapter has allocated VND57 billion to localities across the province to help local people overcome the damages. Of which, nearly VND23 billion has been provided to build 572 new houses, with the support level of VND40 million per house, while over VND25.7 has been disbursed to repair nearly 2,400 houses at the average support of VND11 million per house.
The American registered NGO Vinacapital Foundation (VCF) in Vietnam has cooperated with Hoan My Hospital, based in Da Nang, to offer free medical examination, treatment and medicine to disadvantaged people in the two communes of Tra Leng and Tra Van in Nam Tra My District, Quang Nam Province. It is expected that from now until the end of the first quarter this year, VCF will coordinate with doctors at Hoan My Hospital to organise medical examination for people in 10 communes in the district, while providing water purification system and medical equipment damaged by natural disasters, as well as offering training to improve the professional capacity of medical staff at 11 medical facilities in the district. The entire budget for the activities is over VND4.8 billion.
According to the national weather service, since early this morning (Jan 18), the reported cold spell has overwhelmed the northern region and extended to most places in the North and North Central regions, causing the mercury to drop to 8-11C at the lowest, 4-7C in mountainous areas, and even below zero in higher lands, with a possibility of frost and snowfall appearing.
Today the strong cold air is expected to continue to hit the central part of the central region and then affect some places in the South-Central Coast.
Showers are forecast for the central provinces today, while strong winds and rough sea with sea waves from 3-5m high is expected for the Gulf of Tonkin and offshore the Central and Southern coastal areas.
As temperatures plunge, health experts have recommended the public to keep warm and prevent cold for themselves and their family members, especially for the elderly and children, when the mercury drops to below 10C.
In Lao Cai Province, it is forecast that temperatures in the tourist attraction town of Sa Pa will decrease to 1-3C, with frost and snowfall may occur in the higher mountainous areas in Y Ty Commune (Bat Xat District) and the Hoang Lien Son mountain range at the altitude from 2,200m or more. Local authorities have been suggested to propagate and urge local people to take measures to keep warm for their family members, as well as plants and animals, while stockpiling food and covering cages for cattle and poultry.
The Traffic Police has recommended vehicles’ owners to inspect their transport means before departing, especially when traveling on the northern mountainous roads, while moving at low speed and taking measures to ensure traffic safety in bad weather conditions.
