Nguyen Hai Dang, chairman of the Farmers' Association in Bich Hao Commune, Nghe An Province, said on October 5 that lightning had killed 50 pigs belonging to a local household, causing substantial losses.
At about 6 pm on October 4, thunderstorms and lightning struck Tung Phuc Village in Bich Hao Commune. A lightning strike hit the farm of Hoang Van Kinh, 49, killing all of his pigs being raised for meat.
Kinh said the pigs had been raised for nearly four months and had a combined weight of more than 5.5 tonnes. With live pigs selling for VND 57,000 a kilo, he estimated the loss at about VND 300 million (USD 11,550).
"We were happy that the pigs were almost ready to be sold, but we never expected this to happen," Kinh said.
Kinh's family has raised pigs for nearly nine years, but this was the first time they had suffered such heavy losses from a natural disaster.
Dang said the family had been raising livestock for years but remained economically disadvantaged. On October 5, the local farmers' association was encouraging residents to buy the meat from the pigs killed by the lightning strike to help the family reduce its losses.
According to the Nghe An Hydro-Meteorological Station, showers and thunderstorms accompanied by thunder and lightning affected many parts of the province from the evening and night of October 4 as a strengthened cold high-pressure system moved in.
