Central provinces suffer heavy rains, landslides

Heavy rain floods a section of Hồ Chí Minh Highway in Hà Tĩnh Province’s Hương Khê District yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ TĨNH – The central coastal and Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) provinces suffered heavy rains on Tuesday, flooding urban areas and causing flash floods and landslides.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, since early on Tuesday morning, the central provinces of Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị had moderate to heavy rain with accumulations ranging from 40-100mm, some places reaching over 150mm.

Meanwhile, many places from Thừa Thiên-Huế Province to Phú Yên Province suffered heavy or extremely heavy rains with total rainfall from 50 to 200mm, even over 400mm in some places.

In the Tây Nguyên and Southern regions, there were also local showers and thunderstorms, with heavy rain reaching 20-40mm, in some places over 70mm.

The province of Hà Tĩnh announced a level 1 natural disaster risk due to heavy rain, tornadoes, lightning and hail, while the provinces and cities of Thừa Thiên-Huế, Đà Nẵng, Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi announced level 2 risk, and warned mountainous areas of flash floods and landslides, and low-lying areas of inundation of rice and crop areas.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting, heavy rains in a short period of time may flood urban areas, and cause flash floods and landslides.

During thunderstorms, there could be tornadoes, lightning and strong winds.

Flooding in Hà Tĩnh Province

Authorities urgently reinforce the North-South Railway at the site of a landslide on the section passing through Hà Tĩnh Province. VNS/VNA Photo

In Hà Tĩnh Province, heavy rain from Monday caused floods in rivers and streams to rise rapidly with local flooding in many localities, some areas being deeply flooded. Many serious landslides occurred right next to people’s houses.

The Hồ Chí Minh highway passing through Hương Khê District was deeply flooded so the local authority posted signs restricting people and vehicles from passing through.

There were three landslides in the district.

According to the People’s Committee of Vũ Quang District, heavy rain caused the Ngàn Sâu River to rise quickly, inundating communes of Đức Bồng, Đức Giang and Đức Lĩnh.

Landslides occurred in some villages in Quang Thọ Commune along the Ngàn Sâu River.

Floods swept away two people on their way home from work, who remain missing.

Heavy rain has also caused severe flooding in Can Lộc District’s communes of Phú Lộc, Nhân Lộc, Khánh Vĩnh Yên, Trung Lộc and Sơn Lộc.

In Cẩm Duệ Commune of Cẩm Xuyên District, heavy rain in recent days has caused 14 landslides along the Ngàn Mọ River and Kẻ Gỗ Reservoir, with four landslides close to people’s houses.

The landslides directly affected at least 50 households in four villages of Trần Phú, Phương Trứ, Thống Nhất and Trung Thành.

Vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Cẩm Duệ Commune, Đặng Văn Thành, said the commune had issued emergency relocation orders for seven households located in dangerous areas, and planned to urgently reinforce critical areas before Kẻ Gỗ Reservoir discharges floodwaters that could threaten the safety of people’s lives and property.

To proactively respond to the natural disaster situation in the province, the Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Search and Rescue of Hà Tĩnh Province requested the chairmen of the People’s Committees of districts, cities and towns to closely monitor developments of rain and floods so as to immediately deploy response measures to ensure safety for people and limit damage caused by rain and floods.

Peak tides in HCM City

On Monday evening, HCM City entered the peak of the lunar September Full Moon tide.

In some areas, the tide rose to 1.7m, exceeding alert level 3 and deeply flooding many roads in the city.

People faced serious difficulty in travel and daily activities.

According to the Southern Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre, on Monday, the tide began to rise on many roads in the city.

The water level at Phú An station on Sài Gòn River continued to exceed alarm 3 and reached 1.65m at 6pm, and at Nhà Bè it was 1.7m at 5pm.

With this tidal peak, many areas in Thủ Đức City, and districts of Nhà Bè, Bình Chánh, 4, 7 and 8 were flooded due to high tide. By 8pm, the water on many roads had not yet receded.

In Phú Thuận Street of District 7, the water rose up to people’s knees, causing vehicles to stall and forcing drivers to navigate on foot across the floodwaters.

In the alleys along Trần Xuân Soạn Street, the flooded water rose so quickly people had to use sandbags to prevent water from entering houses.

People living in this area said that Monday was the third consecutive day Trần Xuân Soạn Street was severely flooded during this high tide.

The Southern Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre said that from Tuesday, the water level of the rivers had begun to gradually decrease. However, high tides were still capable of flooding areas along rivers and canals. VNS