Breakwater in Cua Lo was broken into pieces due to big storm No. 9 in 2009

Sitting in a simple house near Cua Lo, Ngo Thi Nguyen, 75, said with worry, “When will it be my turn to evacuate? The sea is about to “eat” my house. I do not know where I should go. Have already moved my house several times.”

There were nearly 300 families of Hamlet 5 at Tam Hai Commune forced to evacuate. Now, Hamlet 4 is under “invasion” of the sea and in danger of being swept away.

Big storm No. 9 has been over for half a year, but it caused a lot of damage for people in Tam Hai. Many houses and coconut trees were torn down.

Nguyen said that her house was away from the sea by several hundreds of metres some years ago, but now, it is just a few metres walk from her house to the sea. She can't understand why the sea bank has eroded so strongly like this. Each year, the see moves dozens of metres further inland.

Nguyen Thuong, one of the people who knows the erosion history very well, said that this hamlet was effected not only by storm No. 9, it was also damaged long ago, causing people here to run away whenever storms hit the hamlet.

“One village, located far from here,” said Thuong while pointing out towards the vast sea, “the erosion became more serious after every rainy season that made all the people here live in worry. A sea-wall had been built to prevent erosion but it was also was swept away.”

Some years ago, the house of Mai Van Ne, Head of Hamlet 4, was located over 100 metres away from the sea. Now he has moved his house very far from the sea out of fear. He lived on selling coconuts in his garden but now that has been destroyed.

In such trying times, local authorities evacuated their people and encouraged them to buy land in Hamlet 7. Disadvantaged families can pay by installments for 5 years. However, they are struggling to earn enough money to cover daily expenses making it impossible to buy land.

The sea has overtaken over 10 hectares of land and 14 houses in Hamlet 4 after sweeping away Hamlet 5, according to Mai Van Ne.

“When the sea-wall was broken, we sent our request to higher level authorities. They said that the State would invest to build a concrete breakwater to protect the village but we do not know when it will happen,” added Ne.

Nguyen Thi Xuan, sitting by her house, which is under threat of being swept away