The Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) in coordination with the People’s Committee of Huong Phong commune, Huong Tra district co-hosted the drill to prepare for the coming storm season on 5^th December, as a part of the climate change adaptation and mitigation project funded by Caritas Australia. The drill was aimed to practice the skills of disaster response planning and implementation for local people and authority before, during and after the occurrence of disaster. 

 The activity was taken place in the assumption of a 9^th storm occurring in November 2012 with force 10 and was approaching Central provinces, including Thua Thien Hue province. Having received the emergency warning from the PC, the Department of Flood and Storm Prevention (FSP) held a quick meeting with stakeholders and the emergency response teams of 6 villages in the commune to discuss about response measures for the coming storm. The FSP also decided to communicate the information of the storm to people and support disadvantaged families to reinforce shelters as well as to urge people to evacuate their family and properties. During the evacuation, six emergency response teams were practicing first aid skills and search and rescue work on the river.  

A member of an emergency response team supports a disadvantaged family to reinforce their shelter

At the end of the drill, the village FSP reported the drill’s results to the commune FSP, in particular assessing the storm damages, and evaluating the drill’s results. Thanks to the knowledge and support from the project, six emergency response teams successfully completed the drill, ensuring the safety for all people and equipment.

Speaking at the drill, Mr. Tran Viet Chuc, President of Huong Phong People’s Committee highly valued the efforts of six emergency response teams when completing on-the-ground guidelines, in which the emergency response team is the core force in climate change response and search and rescue work. 

The drill has contributed to the communication component of the project when raising people’s awareness of disaster preparedness as well as helped local authority and emergency response teams actively manage natural disasters.

-SRD-