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Gone with the wind in Vietnam

Gone with the wind in Vietnam

Saturday, May 25, 2013, 14:43 GMT+7

It is a strange area, rich in agricultural products thanks to its basalt soil as the result of a crater active millions of years ago, and natural disasters, with countless tornados every year.

Locals call their homeland the ‘land of tornados’. In return, the ferocious land bestows on locals permanently verdant crops with rampant vegetation and trees laden with fruit.

In addition, the fertile area has rain all year, with at least one rain every twenty days. As a result, despite the searing heat of the sunlight, trees and crops are always fresh and incredibly green.

This is the domain of Ba Vi Commune, the most remote bit of land in the central province of Quang Ngai’s Ba To District, bordering the Central Highlands.

Ba Vi lies upstream on the Re River, and all sides are surrounded by chains of mountains. Long ago the location was the crater of a volcano.

Mr. Cripple

Locals in Ba Vi have become so scared of tornados that they call the natural disaster the reproachful name of ‘Ông Cụt’ (Mr. Cripple). After a sudden visit from ‘Ông Cụt’, locals are left with nothing except bare land, and even big trees look like they were neatly cut down by a machine.

Le Xuan An, headmaster of the Ba Vi secondary high school, surmised that the numerous tornados form up due to the big difference in geographical altitude and climatic conditions between hilly Ba Vi and the bordering lowland.

The teacher, who is now almost 60 years old and is orginally from Binh Dinh Province, was assigned to Ba Vi in the 1970s to promote education in the area. “When I came here, the land was lived on by the H’Re ethnic minority. Many of my friends came here but only a few survived. The others died of malaria,” he recalled.

Over time, malaria, herds of yellow flies and animals have all been dominated, but not tornados.

“We recognize the tornado as it starts its way from that forest and moves along the Re River before invading our villages. Tornados scatter and destroy everything in their path. It’s horrifying,” An said.

Winds initially whirl around into a pillar which becomes bigger and bigger and then begins moving. Houses, trees, and crops are all ravaged along the way.

Locals in Ba Vi will never forget a tornado that struck in 1996 with spine-chilling wailing winds. As a group of people watched, the entire Thien Phuoc restaurant was picked up and suspended in the air for around three minutes, before it was dropped down 100 meters away.

“There was a light rain with lightning. The howling of the wind started from the edge of the forest,” recalled Pham Van Cau, who lives in a house close to a bridge on the Re River.

Students and children in Ba Vi are experienced in finding a shelter or hiding under tables before and during a tornado.

Tornados in Ba Vi are also accompanied by hail.

“This location has never gone without rain for more than 20 days,” said An.

Thanks to the year-round rain, Ba Vi and the surrounding areas are covered with verdant vegetation and fruit and crops farms.

“Locals have never lived in deprivation,” he boasted.

Village patriarch Pham Van Nuoi said, “Everything here is valuable. In the Re River, we have a special species of fish called ‘cá niên’, which is a specialty.”

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