Typhoon Ketsana in Vietnam: six months later

Ten days after the Ketsana typhoon, Plan was the first international non-governmental organization to provide emergency relief to affected children and communities in 3 Program Units: Kon Tum, Quang Tri and Quang Ngai.

Six months later, work is continuing, but Plan's support has made a real difference to over 125,000 of those affected by the typhoon. Last September Plan staff moved quickly to provide food, construction materials, crop seeds and fertilizer to 18 communities that needed help rebuilding homes and restoring fields. Relief efforts are now continuing with an added focus on access to education, shelter, livelihoods, clean water, sanitation facilities and good hygiene practices.

“The typhoon and floods hit our village. We did not expect such serious damage. The level of the river went up so quickly. All I could do was run to the hills with the other women and children. Next morning, dozens of houses in the village had been washed away”, said Ms. Hoa, who now lives with relatives after her house was destroyed by the flood in Da Krong district, Quang Tri province.

The heavy rain and flash flooding of typhoon Ketsana was significantly worse than the last major flood in 1990. Two days after Ketsana, Plan staff conducting an assessment witnessed collapsed houses, schools, clinics and electricity pylons, empty rice fields and children wandering over ruined roads littered with waste.

Local people had been only weeks away from harvesting their rice when the typhoon destroyed their entire crop, and many poor people lost food and other assets stored in their homes. In the Binh Minh commune, Plan staff visited households and talked with women who showed staff wet and moldy rice that could no longer be used to feed their families.

Ms. Thanh, a 77-year-old woman from Binh Minh commune, Quang Ngai province, said: “All my family’s things were gone, except the blanket that my husband covered me with when he pushed me up the ladder in my house. I just sat on the ladder all night and saw the water rising. It washed out all my belongings in front of my eyes. Our rice was not washed away but it got wet. We have to wait six months more to harvest the next crop and I don’t know what we will eat in the meantime”.

With the aim of ensuring food security in the first month, Plan Vietnam quickly distributed rice, instant noodles, oil, fish sauce, salt and peanuts to over 17,382 households in three targeted provinces. Local authorities and volunteers worked closely with Plan staff to provide food items to victims, even on very rainy days in remote villages and communes.

Thousands of houses were damaged or had their roofs torn off on the day of Ketsana. Many people in Kon Tum and Quang Tri suffered significant losses since their houses had been in an unfinished condition before the typhoon hit. Children and their families were staying under trees or temporary tents covered by plastic sheeting.

Plan provided shelter, construction and roofing materials to 368 families in Quang Tri province during the first month following the disaster. In Kon Tum, with funding from ECHO, Plan distributed roofing materials for 135 houses that had been affected by both Ketsana and the following Mirane typhoon.

Plan’s construction consultant worked with local teams to provide communities with basic knowledge about building houses resistant to storms and floods, giving special attention to the building techniques and customs of people living in the highland and mountainous areas.

Small teams of local construction workers were set up by Plan to speed up work in damaged villages and staff worked with local authorities to ensure that additional Government support and funding was available. As a result of these combined efforts, over 1,000 people now have access to a stable life and safer homes.

With only a short time available to replant before the end of the season, thousands of households urgently needed agricultural aid. Plan Vietnam acted quickly to procure crop seeds (rice, peanuts, corn and vegetables) and fertilizer for 5,055 families in Quang Tri and Quang Ngai province. Additional support for the following crop will continue in April.