Chapter 23 — The City Behind the Mist

The storm officially landed in Van Son at dawn, half a day earlier than the hydrometeorological station's last forecast. Rain poured down in torrents, gusts of wind repeatedly knocked down many trees along the main roads, causing the entire town to be on emergency alert from the first hours.

Khanh Linh and Viet Hoang, along with the entire technical team, were on duty all night in the central control room, monitoring each continuously updated index from the geological sensor system. As the first light of dawn broke through the thick layer of dark clouds, a red warning signal suddenly flashed on the home screen, accompanied by a shrill siren echoing throughout the room.

"The ground movement in the northern slope area is exceeding the safe threshold," the engineer on duty shouted, his voice filled with panic as he watched the numbers jump on the chart. "The rate of displacement is increasing unusually fast, which may be an early sign of a local landslide."

Viet Hoang, even though his heart was pounding, still tried to maintain the necessary alertness in an emergency situation. "Immediately activate emergency evacuation warning procedures for the entire area within the danger radius," he ordered firmly. "Contact the rescue force immediately, request to implement an emergency relocation plan for the remaining households that have not had time to evacuate before."

Khanh Linh, without hesitation, immediately contacted Mr. Bui Quoc Bao and the town authorities directly, activating the entire emergency warning loudspeaker system. The sound of loudspeakers echoed throughout the streets, calling on the remaining people to immediately move to safe shelters that had been prepared in advance, amid the torrential rain and endless howling wind.

During that chaos, another urgent news made Khanh Linh's heart stop beating - Mrs. Ut Suong, who had agreed to evacuate in advance, returned to her old house to retrieve some important family relics, right at the most dangerous moment approaching.

"Mrs. Suong is still in the dangerous area," a neighbor hurriedly reported the news over the phone, her voice filled with panic. "I saw you return home about fifteen minutes ago, and since then no one has contacted you again."

Without a second of hesitation, Khanh Linh rushed out of the control room, despite the wind and rain roaring fiercely outside. Viet Hoang, although he tried to stop her for her own safety, eventually had to run after her, unable to let her face the danger alone. "We go together," he shouted over the howling wind, holding her hand tightly as the two rushed into the white rain.

The road leading to Mrs. Ut Suong's house was flooded almost to her knees, the murky water streams carrying mud from the hillsides poured down stronger and stronger. When they arrived, they saw Mrs. Suong trying to pull out an old wooden chest from the dark house due to a power outage, completely unaware of the level of danger hanging right above their heads.

"Grandma, we have to go now, there's no time left!" Khanh Linh shouted loudly, ran inside, and grabbed the old woman's thin arm.

"I can't leave it behind," Mrs. Suong replied, her voice choked, her hand still not leaving the wooden chest. "These are the last mementos of my husband, of my entire life attached to this land."

Viet Hoang, without wasting another moment, lifted the chest onto his shoulder while Khanh Linh helped Mrs. Suong out of the house. The three of them together waded through the rapidly rising water towards the nearest safe gathering point. Just as they had just escaped the alley leading to the house, a terrible rumbling noise rang out behind them, causing all three to turn around and look in surprise.

A large piece of dirt from the hillside behind Mrs. Suong's house began to slide down, dragging mud, rocks and trees down onto the road they had just passed just a few minutes before. If there was even a few more seconds of delay, the three probably wouldn't have had a chance to escape in time.

"Oh my god," Ms. Suong exclaimed, her whole body trembling as she witnessed that horrifying scene, her eyes filled with tears and shock. "If it weren't for you two, I probably would have..."

"Don't think about that anymore," Khanh Linh said, her voice unable to hide the trembling after the life-or-death moment she had just experienced, hugging the old woman who was trembling from cold and fear. "The most important thing right now is that she's safe."

All three were quickly taken to a safe shelter, where rescue forces and other people were gathering to wait for the storm to pass. Viet Hoang, after ensuring that Ms. Suong had received careful medical care, immediately contacted the control room to update the landslide situation that had just occurred.

"Fortunately, the landslide area was outside the scope of the main reinforcement work, and did not directly affect the new ground anchor system," he reported, his voice still shaking after what he had just witnessed. "But this is the clearest warning, showing that we were right to resolutely request a thorough evacuation, not accepting any complacency."

Khanh Linh, sitting next to Mrs. Ut Suong who was gradually calming down, couldn't help but feel a sense of relief mixed with an inconsolable obsession. The sight of rocks and soil collapsing right behind them, even though it only happened for a split second, made her understand more clearly than ever the true severity of the disaster that her father had to witness and was wrongly accused of fifteen years ago.

"Now I understand, why you always say, nothing is more important than human life," she whispered, her eyes directed out the door frame, where the storm was still roaring fiercely, as if testing to the end all the efforts that people had worked so hard to prepare.

Throughout that morning, the rain continued to pour down, and gusts of wind made the roof of the shelter shake violently. Viet Hoang, after being temporarily reassured about the situation in the small landslide area, returned with a group of engineers to the main slope area, where the reinforced soil anchor system is being subjected to the harshest test since its completion. He directly checked each anchor point, constantly comparing it with sensor data to ensure no unusual signs were missed.

“The entire system is holding up, although the pressure from the current rainfall has far exceeded the original design level,” he reported over the radio, his voice mixed with cautious relief. "But we must not relax, because the forecast shows that the peak of the storm is still yet to come, it could take at least another six to eight hours."

At the shelter, Khanh Linh and a team of volunteers were busy distributing warm blankets, drinking water and food to hundreds of people temporarily taking refuge. In the midst of that chaotic but humane atmosphere, she encountered Mr. Kieu Xuan Thinh comforting a group of young children who were crying in fear from the howling wind outside, telling them fairy tales to ease their anxiety.

"You did well, Khanh Linh," Mr. Thinh said as she approached, his eyes full of respect. "Looking at the way you coordinated everything today, I believe your father must be very proud of you, even though he's no longer here to see it with his own eyes."

Near noon, an unexpected message from the security team made Khanh Linh very concerned - during the chaos of the storm, someone deliberately spread false rumors on local social networks, claiming that the reinforcement work was the cause of the small landslide that had just occurred near Ms. Ut Suong's house, in order to sow confusion and shake people's confidence at the most stressful time.

"We will handle this after the storm passes," Khanh Linh said, her voice steady even though she couldn't help but feel frustrated at that blatant slander. "Now, our only priority is to ensure everyone's absolute safety, not to let anything distract from the focus needed at this time."

She asked the project's communications team to prepare a complete and transparent set of monitoring data, so that it can be announced as soon as the storm passes, to quell all false rumors with irrefutable scientific numbers. "We've been through too many lies in the past," she told her team, her voice filled with determination. "This time, the truth will always be the most powerful weapon we have, no matter how much someone tries to distort it, no matter how anonymous they are behind many layers of social networks."