Cambodia's most fearsome Strongman fears Tropical Storm Noul

PM cancels Kampot trip, citing storm fears

Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Written by VONG SOKHENG
The Phnom Penh Post

PRIME Minister Hun Sen has cancelled a trip to the coastal province of Kampot, citing fears of a tropical storm that is set to sweep through southern Cambodia this week.

Hun Sen was scheduled to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kamchay hydropower dam in Kampot today but expressed concerns about safety in the wake of the helicopter crash that killed National Police Commissioner Hok Lundy and three others on November 9.

It is believed the helicopter crashed due to heavy rain.

"I will not take any risk because of the accident that happened to our four patriots flying at night and in heavy rain," Hun Sen said at the opening of an ethanol factory in Kandal province Monday. "We regret their loss."

Meanwhile, Lim Kean Hor, minister of Water Management and Meteorology, has issued a public notice warning that heavy rain and electrical storms are expected to pound the southern coast in the next few days and that locals should exercise caution.

"All travellers by land, sea and air have to increase their attention in order to avoid any accidents that might occur," the statement said.

The Vietnamese government has issued similar alerts over tropical storm Noul, which is expected to make landfall off the Vietnamese coast late Monday.

The warnings come after a fortnight of unusually heavy downpours in Vietnam, which has seen record floods across the country.

Hun Sen refuses to join his powerful ally, Hok Lundy

Hun Sen cancels trip to inaugurate hydro-power dam in Kampot

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has canceled his trip to coastal province of Kampot to inaugurate a hydro-power dam due to fear of rainy weather, dam developer confirmed with Xinhua here on Tuesday.

During the trip scheduled on Tuesday, the premier planned to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the Kamchay Dam, which is developed by the SinoHydro Corporation, said Zhao Jinhui, resident director of the corporation.

The ceremony will be postponed, but the exact date is not decided yet, he added.

While explaining the change, Hun Sen expressed concerns about safety in the wake of the helicopter crash that killed National Police Commissioner Hok Lundy and three others on Nov. 9, according to the reports of English-language newspaper the Phnom Penh Post on Tuesday.

It is believed that the chopper crashed due to heavy rain, it added.

"I will not take any risk because of the accident that happened to our four patriots flying at night and in heavy rain. We regret their loss," the paper quoted him as saying.

According to the schedule, the premier should have taken his helicopter to Kampot on Tuesday morning. A mild rain started at midnight and lasted till Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Water Management and Meteorology has issued a notice warning that heavy rain and electrical storms are expected to pound the southern coast in the next few days.

Once bitten, twice shy; Hun Mana’s Bayon TV9 was part of a conspiracy to kill Hok Lundy?

Hun Sen cancels visit to the province of Kampot

By Ung Chamroeun
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

Due to bad weather forecast for the upcoming days in the south of the kingdom, the prime minister preferred to renounce his official visit to the province.

Following the announce by the Phnom Penh meteorology department warning the population of the arrival of Tropical Storm Noul along Cambodia’s coasts, Prime minister Hun Sen decided to cancel his participation at the inauguration of a hydraulic structure in the province of Kampot. In a speech given on Monday 17 November, Hun Sen declared that “one must be prudent, because 4 national heroes have perished in the helicopter accident caused by bad weather.” Hun Sen also blasted Bayon TV Channel 9 [owned by Hun Mana, his daughter], which on 09 November – the day the accident took place and in which national police chief Hok Lundy was killed – broadcasted by mistake the 07 November weather forecast rather than the correct one. On 07 November, the weather forecast was rather mild as opposed to what really happened on 09 November.

Hun Sen cancelled trip to Kampot out of concern over storm Noul hitting South Vietnam [-Hok Lundy's accident taught Hun Sen the lesson?]

Storm churns towards Vietnam

Monday, November 17, 2008
By Ho Binh Minh
Reuters

A strong tropical storm churned towards southern Vietnam on Monday, threatening a direct hit on the densely populated Mekong Delta and substantial damage to the country's coffee production.

State-run forecasters said Tropical Storm Noul, with winds of 88 kph (55 mph), would reach landfall around the tourist spots of Nha Trang and Mui Ne late on Monday and cross the coffee-growing province of Lam Dong.

Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer and the third-largest producer of crude oil in Southeast Asia.

Noul's arrival coincides with the peak of the coffee harvest in the Central Highlands. Torrential rains could halt the harvest and prevent farmers from drying beans outdoors, causing delays and lowering quality.

The storm could also wreak havoc in the delta, which normally avoids the worst of the storms that roll in from the South China Sea, making people who live there relatively unprepared for disaster.

"It could cause huge damage to lives and property," Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said in an urgent telegraph to provincial authorities and state oil and gas group Petrovietnam.

All offshore oil production remained operational, an official from Petrovietnam said, although state television said Vietsovpetro, a Russian joint venture, would temporarily shut operation on four oil rigs and evacuate workers.

It did not say how much production would be affected.

In his telegraph, Hung ordered the immediate recall of all fishing boats in the area and said children should not go to school as preparations were made for mass evacuations across a 400 km (250 mile) swathe of coastline.

More than 74,000 people needed evacuation while more than 133,000 fishermen had been warned to take shelter as the storm moved to within 100 kms (65 miles) of the coast, the government said.

In neighbouring Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen cancelled a scheduled trip on Tuesday to the coastal province of Kampot, abutting Vietnam, because of the storm.

Vietnamese government reports said more than 17,000 fishing boats were operating near the Spratlys in the path of the storm.

The Mekong Delta, where the latest rice crop has been harvested, is rarely hit by storms. Typhoon Linda caught the region unawares in November 1997, killing at least 464 people. The government never revised an initial tally that listed more than 3,200 people as missing.

(Additional reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam and Ek Madra in Phnom Penh; Editing by Ed Cropley and David Fox)