Record flooding hits Vietnam city, eight killed in north
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Vehicles drive on a flooded street due to heavy rains caused by Typhoon Matmo in Hanoi on Oct 7.
PHOTO: AFP
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HANOI - Record floods submerged streets in several communities in Vietnam on Oct 8, with at least eight people killed this week, the government said.
Tens of thousands were left stuck at home or fleeing floodwaters that reached the tops of cars and rooftops in areas of Thai Nguyen city, about 80km north of the capital Hanoi.
The environment ministry said eight people were killed in flash floods and landslides in Vietnam’s mountainous north since Oct 6, and five others were missing.
Vietnam has recorded the highest flood levels on three rivers in the country’s north in nearly 40 years, state media reported on Oct 8.
The high-water marks of the Bang, Thuong and Trung rivers surpassed levels not seen since 1986 from late Oct 7 to Oct 8, with the Trung river in Lang Son province, bordering China, forecast to peak at nearly 2m above the record, Vietnam state television said.
By the morning of Oct 8, the weather bureau said the level of the Cau river, running across Thai Nguyen city, was more than a metre higher than the previous record level of 28.81m – when Typhoon Yagi devastated the country in September 2024.
Overnight on Sept 7 and on the morning of Oct 8, social media users posted pleas for help as their relatives and friends were stranded with no electricity and few provisions in the provinces of Thai Nguyen, Cao Bang and Lang Son.
“Our ground floor (in Thai Nguyen province) was totally flooded. My parents and five kids were stuck, with not enough food and water. No communication since late Tuesday. They need urgent help,” Ms Thoan Vu posted online alongside hundreds of similar pleas.
The floods followed heavy rain from Typhoon Matmo, which weakened on Oct 6 while approaching Vietnam but hit the north hard.
Typhoon Matmo landed only a week after Typhoon Bualoi triggered widespread flooding, killing at least 56 people and causing losses estimated at more than US$710 million (S$920 million).
“I have never witnessed such a terrible flood since I was born 60 years ago,” Mr Nguyen Van Nguyen told AFP from his three-storey house in Thai Nguyen province.
“There has never been flooding here in my street but now my ground floor is all submerged.”
The military said it used two helicopters to drop four tonnes of water, instant noodles, dry cake, milk and life jackets to people in flooded parts of Lang Son province bordering China.
Human-driven climate change is turbocharging extreme weather events like typhoons, making them ever more deadly and destructive. AFP
