Workshop discusses ways to cope with storm surge

Fong Chi Kong, a representative from the Typhoon Committee Secretariat, said storm surge is the biggest threat of typhoons. Strong winds push sea water into ports and low land, causing tsunami-like flooding. Vietnam is one of the countries suffering from storm surge.

He called for immediate actions and better resilience against storm surge to rescue more lives and mitigate social-economic losses.

The workshop also mentioned issues relating to storm surge like advances in storm surge and coastal flooding forecasting, storm surge forecast model and its role in making decisions and developing storm surge forecasting systems for coastal localities.

Established in 1968, the Typhoon Committee is an intergovernmental body under the auspices of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in order to promote and coordinate the planning and implementation of measures required for minimising the loss of life and material damage caused by typhoons in the region.

Vietnam became an official member of the Typhoon Committee in 1968. The National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting is a national coordinator in cooperation activities with the Typhoon Committee.