Heavy rain caused flooding across parts of the country’s north, disrupting travel, inundating homes and pushing several rivers above dangerous levels, authorities and state media said.
Rain has fallen across northern and north-central Vietnam this week, with some areas receiving more than 50cm, according to the disaster prevention department yesterday.
More than 2,000 homes have been submerged, many key transportation routes blocked and more than 1,000 households isolated.
Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa provinces, which include lowland and hilly areas south of the capital Hanoi, have been among the hardest hit.
Vietnam is among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries and prone to flooding.
A series of severe storms last year spurred the country to find new ways to prepare for and manage floods.
In Thanh Hoa province, students were told to stay home because flooding had made travel to school dangerous.
Heavy rains and flooding have submerged or damaged about 10,014ha of rice and other crops, with the largest losses reported in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces. Thousands of livestock and poultry also have been killed.
“The flood happens every year,” Ninh Binh resident Tran Ngoc Tai told national broadcaster VTV, adding that people were prepared with fresh water and food.
Rainfall from Wednesday night to Thursday morning exceeded 15cm in some areas, state media said.
The rising waters of Bui River in the southwest outskirts of Hanoi threatened to flood homes, prompting authorities to deploy hundreds of soldiers to help residents move belongings to higher ground, state media said.
A cold air mass moving south is expected to bring five days of heavy rain to southern Vietnam including flood-prone Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s financial capital, according to the Southern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Center. — AP
