Brig. Gen. John O’Neil, U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) Director of Logistics, Engineering, and Security Cooperation, handed over a newly constructed two story extension of a Disaster Management Coordination Center (DMCC) to Mr. Nguyen Chin, Vice Chairman of the Peoples Provincial Committee of Quang Nam province, Vietnam, March 3, 2015.

The DMCC in Quang Nam province was one of the first two centers PACOM built using the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District.  The DMCCs are a series of dual use shelters the United States and Vietnam built as part of the strategic effort to strengthen Vietnam’s response in the disaster-prone coastal regions.

The DMCC offers a safe shelter for coordinators and workers to manage and coordinate relief efforts.  The newly added extension is equipped with solar power, emergency storage facilities, a communications room, and sleeping quarters that can withstand a category three typhoon. The center is designed to help the provincial authority direct evacuations of vulnerable homes, stockpile emergency relief, and respond in the aftermath of storms by deploying and communicating with first responders in disaster affected areas.

Since 2009, the U.S. Government, through the Overseas Humanitarian Disaster Assistance and Civic Action Program, has spent more than $15 million in constructing dual use disaster shelters, management and coordination centers, schools, clinics, and bridges in many towns and villages throughout Vietnam. 

In the same period, the U.S. Agency for International Development has provided more than $8 million for disaster risk reduction activities.  In 2015, the United States plans to spend up to $5 million to continue its humanitarian assistance projects in Vietnam.

“I am proud, on behalf of the United States and US Pacific Command, to provide this assistance to the people of Quang Nam; and we will continue to support the Vietnamese government’s disaster relief efforts.  By pulling together resources to properly prepare; by focusing operations on highly vulnerable areas; and by coordinating through centers like this one, we can prevent loss of life and help affected communities to recover much more quickly and completely from the devastating effects of natural disasters,” said Brig. Gen. O’Neil. 

Brig. Gen. O’Neil’s visit to Vietnam also marks the opening of the Defense and Security month celebration. This year Vietnam and the United States proudly celebrate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations.