Bangkok - Disaster preparedness spared Vietnam from feeling Typhoon Ketsana's full fury, providing a good example that one euro of precaution is worth four euros in relief, the European Union humanitarian aid agency claimed Wednesday. "In Vietnam, Ketsana was really a success story of how disaster preparedness is working," European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO) regional director David Verboom said.
Typhoon Ketsana smashed into Vietnam on September 29, killing more than 100 people, destroying 22,000 houses and damaging another 260,000, but it could have been a lot worse, according to Verboom.
"Before the storm 370,000 people were evacuated and 46,000 boats returned to harbour and were safely anchored," Verboom told a press conference after returning form Hanoi.
ECHO has been working closely with the Vietnamese government to bolster coastal communities' preparedness for typhoons, such as supporting early-warning systems and enforcing better construction standards such as reinforcing roofs with wooden beams.
"Instead of having this iron sheeting flying around in a typhoon like a razor blade, the roof stays on the house," Verboom said.
ECHO on Thursday announced the launch of a new 10-million-euro disaster preparedness program in 2010 for South-east Asia, including Myanmar and Pacific islands for the first time.
Disaster preparedness schemes account for 12 per cent of ECHO's annual budget of 1 billion euros, and has become a more popular source of spending with growing concerns about climate change and global warming.
The World Bank last week estimated that the world will need to spend about 100 billion dollars per annum on climate adaptation as sea levels rise and weather-related disasters become more prevalent.
