Chief of Kho Vang village: '8 golden hours' to run away and escape by following 1 saying?

Within just 8 hours of discovering the landslide, the head of Kho Vang village mobilized 115 villagers to evacuate to a safe place on a higher mountain not far away.

On the afternoon of September 13, while busy receiving relief supplies and distributing them to the people, Mr. Ma Seo Chu (born in 1991), head of Kho Vang village (Coc Lau commune, Bac Ha, Lao Cai) told reporters about the hours of racing against time to bring 115 of his people to avoid the flood and miraculously escape death.

Mr. Chu recalled that on September 9, Kho Vang village experienced two days of continuous rain. Because the commune and district authorities had informed him in advance, he and a few young men in the village went up to the hill area behind the village to check and find a high, flat hill or mountain to gradually calculate the plan to evacuate the people.

"At around 8am, we discovered a landslide of about 20cm, so we immediately mobilized each other to cut bamboo trees to a safe area to build a shelter, using available tarps to cover it, and brought people there to stay temporarily, to take shelter for a while. We raced against time because we knew that the hill behind us could collapse at any time. From the time we discovered it until everyone safely arrived at the shelter, it was only about 8 hours. By 4pm the same day, all 115 people had arrived safely. Unexpectedly, after everyone arrived, the next day the hill behind us collapsed right into the village area," said Mr. Chu.

When people evacuated to new shelters to avoid landslides, they only brought essential items such as blankets, bowls, chopsticks, pots and pans, and a little rice to cook.

Among the 115 people of Kho Vang village who evacuated to avoid landslides, there were 50 children aged 0-15. On the flat area of the mountain, Village Chief Chu and the young people in the village built 14 huts, covered with tarpaulin and staked with bamboo.

In the early days of living in the camp, people faced many difficulties. Food and clean water were scarce, and people did not know what to do, they could only rely on each other because their houses had been eroded and covered with rocks and soil.

"When we saw the authorities coming, we were extremely happy, knowing that we had been saved. Everyone brought rice, instant noodles, dry food and candy. The next day, the commune and district authorities brought a lot of relief supplies, helping people stabilize their lives," recalled the head of Kho Vang village.

According to Mr. Chu, the place where he lives is about 4 km away from another residential area. Previously, the two residential areas were two different villages, but since 2019, they have been merged into one village. The road has been severely eroded, and there is no phone connection, so he cannot inform the people in that area about the relocation.

"Unfortunately, the floodwaters caused landslides and flooded into that residential area, causing unfortunate consequences such as washing away several houses and causing people to go missing," said the village chief.

Regarding the future of the 115 residents, Mr. Chu said that currently, returning to their old residence is impossible because the area has suffered serious landslides. Therefore, in the coming time, Mr. Chu and the residents hope that the local government will soon create conditions and find new, safe places for people to relocate, rebuild their houses, and settle down.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Nghi - Secretary of the Party Committee of Coc Lau Commune, Bac Ha District, said that Kho Vang village was merged from two villages Ban Vang and Kho Lac. The people who fled to the mountain to avoid the landslide were people from Ban Vang village before.

Mr. Nghi added that people's search for safe places to avoid landslides was not a spontaneous action but was motivated, guided, and proactively supported by the village chief.