US embassy cable - 05HANOI3041

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 003041 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
USDOC FOR 4430/MAC/ASIA/OPB/VLC/HPPHO 
STATE FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA KEN ISAACS, GREG GOTTLIEB 
STATE FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA MICHAEL MARX, ROB THAYER, BART 
DEEMER 
STATE FOR USAID/DCHA/OFDA DAA WILLIAM GARVELINK 
BANGKOK FOR OFDA SENIOR REGIONAL ADVISOR TOM DOLAN 
KATHMANDU FOR OFDA REGIONAL ADVISOR WILLIAM BERGER 
GENEVA FOR USAID NANCY KYLOH 
USDA FOR FAS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, EAID, ECON, ENRG, VM, AFLU 
SUBJECT: RECOVERING FROM DISASTER - A LOOK AT ONE PROVINCE 
IN VIETNAM 
 
Ref: Hanoi 2569 
 
 
1. SUMMARY:  A visit to the typhoon stricken province of 
Thanh Hoa by US Embassy staff revealed a province struggling 
with slow recovery from the Typhoon Damrey and a recent 
outbreak of avian influenza in poultry.  Damrey damaged or 
destroyed more than 30,000 houses (out of more than 100,000 
in 11 affected provinces), destroyed agricultural land, sea 
dikes and left thousands displaced and homeless in the 
province.  The typhoon affected some of the most 
economically underdeveloped areas of Vietnam.  The 
international community responded with over one million USD 
in assistance, including 50,000 USD from USAID's Office for 
Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).  Provincial officials 
described their efforts in disaster mitigation planning and 
preventative measures for avian influenza (AI).  However, 
they stressed lack of resources to provide sufficient direct 
assistance to residents.  They would welcome international 
assistance for more direct service provision, shoring up and 
improving sea dikes and the procurement of medical supplies 
in the event of an avian influenza pandemic.  END SUMMARY. 
 
STRONGEST STORM IN TEN YEARS 
---------------------------- 
 
2. Typhoon Damrey hit Northern Vietnam on September 26, 
2005, a storm categorized by the Government of Vietnam as 
the strongest to strike the country in ten years.  With wind 
forces reaching up to 132 kilometers per hour, the storm 
reached Beaufort Scale 12 or a Category Two hurricane.  The 
typhoon created storm surges of up to ten feet in the 
coastal provinces of Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Ninh 
Binh, Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa and localized flash floods in 
the northern upland provinces of Yen Bai and Lao Cai. The 
International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent 
(IFRC) reported that more than 100,000 houses were affected 
by the storm surge and flash floods, hundred of thousands of 
hectares of crops were damaged as seawater penetrated inland 
as far as four kilometers. 90 people were reported dead or 
missing.    International donors have contributed over one 
million USD to disaster relief, while the GVN estimates 
total damage caused by Typhoon Damrey at 209 million USD. 
 
3. In response to the damage caused by the typhoon, 
Ambassador Marine declared a disaster (REFTEL) and USAID's 
Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) mobilized 
$50,0000 in support to Typhoon affected areas.  The NGO 
Catholic Relief Service (CRS) was selected to implement a 
project with these funds to supply typhoon affected 
residents of the costal areas of Thanh Hoa province with 
shelter assistance, agricultural supplies, repair to dikes 
and canals and salt production fields.  Embassy DCM John 
Boardman, accompanied by CRS and USAID Vietnam and staff, 
visited Thanh Hoa on November 4, one of the 11 provinces 
recently affected by Typhoon Damrey, to assess recovery in 
the province.  The team met with provincial leaders and 
traveled to the communes hardest hit by the typhoon to speak 
with local officials and residents. 
 
THE PROVINCE RESPONDS 
--------------------- 
 
4. Provincial officials reported that 30,000 houses were 
damaged; 70,000 hectares of farmland inundated with salt 
water and 30 kilometers of dikes were damaged in Thanh Hoa. 
They estimated provincial losses at 83 billion VND (five 
million USD), a blow to an already poor and under-developed 
area.  At the same time, provincial officials are struggling 
with typhoon relief, they are faced with the threat of avian 
influenza; the H5N1 virus has reemerged in poultry in Thanh 
Hoa and several other provinces within the past few weeks. 
Provincial officials state they have managed to vaccinate 
three million of the province's estimated thirteen million 
birds and have culled 10,000 birds, but lack supplies to 
engage in a larger scale culling should the government 
mandate, and lack basic medical supplies to treat residents 
in the event of a pandemic. 
 
5. According to the Thanh Hoa People's Committee, the 
Central Government has been able to only pledge around 300 
USD support to housing repair in the Than Hoa, supplemented 
by another 63,000 USD from province funds.  The province has 
also committed to provide the victims food relief for the 
next three months and will pay for 50 percent of the seeds 
needed for winter crops. 
 
 
A VIEW FROM THE GROUND 
--------------------- 
 
6. The team visited local officials and villagers in two of 
the coastal communes hit by the typhoon.  A view from the 
dirt tracks bisecting the villages revealed poor rural 
communities likely struggling with economic difficulties 
even before the typhoon.  They now face the prospect of 
further economic depression as the typhoon wiped out salt 
production fields and saltwater contaminated much of the 
rice paddies. 
 
7. Local authorities pointed out houses damaged by the 
typhoon.   Many of the grey cement houses withstood the 
storm surge and rains.  However, a number collapsed while 
adjacent houses were apparently undamaged.  Six weeks after 
the typhoon, rubble had been cleared, felled trees removed 
but almost no reconstruction work was evident on the damaged 
properties. Provincial officials attributed this to 
difficulties in selecting beneficiaries. Many people wanted 
housing repair, but according to CRS staff, there is not 
enough money to go round.  One woman stood in the rubble of 
her home and attempted to clear the bricks by hand while 
nonplussed provincial officials watched and an accompanying 
TV crew filmed her labor. 
 
REPAIR OF HOUSES AND LOOKING FOREWARD 
------------------------------------- 
 
8. CRS staff added that the villagers had asked for money 
for crops and cash for work replanting the crops first. 
Help to undertake housing repair was their second priority. 
To date, CRS has provided the two communes with potato 
seeds, cash for agricultural work, and a limited amount of 
schools supplies to replace those destroyed by the storm. 
CRS has already transferred money for housing repair to 
commune officials, but the actual beneficiaries have not yet 
been selected, as mentioned above. 
 
9.  With remaining OFDA funds and their own private funds, 
CRS plans to assist repairing canals, dikes, salt production 
flats and provide roofs for some of the houses. CRS adds 
that the slow pace of housing repair using both CRS and 
provincial funds can also be attributed to commune level 
squabbles over selecting beneficiaries.  Because funds are 
insufficient to repair all houses, there has been 
competition over who receives assistance. (CRS is working 
with local officials on the problem of beneficiary selection 
and has developed a transparent beneficiary selection 
model.) 
 
DISASTER PLANNING 
----------------- 
 
10. The province demonstrated considerable efficiency in 
evacuation, moving 120,000 people from coastal areas to 
higher ground in advance of the storm.  Villagers reported 
that busses arrived three hours in advance of the storm and 
took them to communal shelters on higher ground.  Since the 
event, they have been provided with food and water from the 
province, and provincial officials said the province and 
central government would need to continue supplying rice and 
seeds to ensure food security for the next two months. 
11. Provincial officials reported that they have been 
involved in flood plain mapping in the region, and have an 
effective evacuation system in place in the event of future 
storms.  A severe storm hits the province every five to ten 
years, according to local officials.  The deputy chairman of 
the Provincial People's Committee said that they needed 
international assistance to upgrade the sea dike system. 
The dikes can currently handle storms up to Beaufort Scale 9 
(a severe gale with winds up to 50 miles per hour).  Local 
officials added that flood damaged locations can be expected 
to be damaged again in the future.  In the meantime, they 
are carrying out local mitigation activities including 
replanting mangroves, working on evacuation plans and 
awareness activities to prevent loss of life in future 
storms. 
 
 
MARINE