Thousands of people have been evacuated in Vietnam after record torrential rains of more than one meter in 24 hours submerged the city of Hue, in the center of the country, the Ministry of Environment announced on Tuesday, October 28.
While residents, in waterproof layers, walk through the water, sometimes up to their waists, others travel aboard small boats through the flooded streets of the former imperial city with its UNESCO world heritage monuments.
Starting at 7 p.m. Sunday at 7 p.m. (1:00 p.m. French time) on Monday, three observation stations measured 1.7 meters, 1.1 meters and more than one meter of rain in Hue, the ministry said in a statement. The previous record, 99 centimeters, was set in 1999.
“The biggest flood I have ever experienced”
According to the ministry, more than 8,600 people in four regions have been evacuated since Saturday due to the risk of serious flooding and landslides.
“This is the biggest flood I have ever experienced, with water levels in my house about 40 centimeters higher than in 1999,” said Tran Anh Tuan, a 56-year-old Hue resident.
“My ground floor is under about two meters of water. We have moved all important furniture upstairs. We have been in the dark for more than a day because our electricity was cut off,” Tran Anh Tuan told AFP from her three-story home in central Hue.
Hue authorities warned residents that rain and flooding could last until Friday.
Tourists traveling on boats
In the historic city of Hoi An, not far from Hue, state media photographed tourists navigating narrow streets in boats, and AFP journalists watched authorities evacuate several people from heavily flooded areas.
Early Tuesday, heavy rain triggered a massive red mud landslide over about three kilometers in the coastal province of Quang Ngai, about 200 kilometers south of Hue, isolating about 1,700 people and damaging crops, local authorities said.
“The risk level of natural disasters due to flash floods and landslides is at the highest level,” Mai Van Khiem, director of the National Center for Hydrometeorological Forecasting, was quoted as saying on a government website as saying more rain is forecast until Wednesday.
Typhoons at the beginning of the month
Schools remain closed in the cities of Hue and Danang since Saturday, while the railway linking the north and south of the country suffered delays due to flooding.
Global warming caused by human activity is making extreme weather events more frequent, deadlier and more destructive, scientists say. For each additional degree, the atmosphere can contain 7% more humidity, they warn.
At the beginning of October, northern Vietnam had already been affected by heavy flooding following the passage of typhoons Bualoi and Matmo.
Natural disasters, mainly storms, floods and landslides, left 187 people dead or missing in the Southeast Asian country during the first nine months of the year.
Source: BFM TV
