Public Security Forces asked to actively get ready for storm

The dispatch was sent to the Mobile Police Command, the Police Department of Fire and Rescue, the Traffic Police Department, and the Police Department of Prison, Detention Center and Juvenile Reformatory Management, the Department of Information and Communications, and the logistics and health agencies under the Ministry of Public Security as well as the police departments of provinces and cities from Quang Ninh to Phu Yen.

The dispatch reads:

According to the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting, storm No. 7 has weakened into a tropical depression. Due to the tropical depression, coastal provinces from Quang Ninh to Nghe An are expected to see strong winds at levels 6-7, with gusts at level 9.

Other Northern localities will experience heavy rains. Flash floods and landslides may occur in mountainous areas while low-lying and riverside areas could be flooded.

Another tropical typhoon internationally named Kompasu may go to the East Sea on the night of October 11. If so, it will become the eighth storm in this year, according to Vietnam’s ratings. Its gale force at sea can reach level 10-11, with gusts at level 13. The storm may trigger heavy rains in some Northern and Central provinces in the next few days.

To effectively respond to the upcoming storm in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MPS asks all above-mentioned units to:

- Strictly implement directives issued by the Prime Minister, the Central Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention, the National Committee for Search and Rescue, as well as instructions of the MPS and local authorities on approaches to natural disasters amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Closely coordinate with other sectors and functional forces to promptly evacuate people from flood- and landslide-prone areas, encourage people not to travel through storm-hit localities, especially from the South to the North. Local police should offer travellers on highways food, gasoline and shelters from the storm.

- Closely monitor developments of the storm and related dangerous weather phenomena via the mass media to draw up plans for possible situations. Encourage the media to cover the police’s efforts in natural disaster response and relief with the motto “Police forces helps people in difficult times”.

- Actively work out plans to protect public security buildings, detention facilities and other assets while ensuring the safety and health of on-duty forces.

- Deploy forces to guide vehicles at water-logged road sections and flood-isolated areas to avoid traffic accidents and maintain smooth traffic on key routes during the storm.

- The commune-level police force should heighten  its responsibility and role in responding to natural disasters and fighting the COVID-19 in line with the directions of the Prime Minister on residency management while mobilizing locals to minimize consequences of the storm.

- Under-ministerial agencies should prepare forces and means to reinforce police units in storm-hit localities upon request as well as to ensure effective communication for rescue missions.

- Seriously observe on-standby regulations and ensure standby forces for natural disaster relief and anti-pandemic missions upon request.