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Just when people in Saigon thought that they had made it through the biggest rainfall in 40 years on Monday evening, it pelted down again on Tuesday evening, flooding streets and felling trees.
In just one hour, 11 streets in the country’s most modern city were underup to half a meter of water on Tuesday evening, according to an official report from the city.
It couldn't have come at a worse time either, with people leaving work to be confronted with flooded streets and traffic jams at major crossroads.
Many motorbike riders had to struggle to push their bikes along Nguyen Huu Canh, a flood-prone street in Binh Thanh District.
Hong Thuy, a woman who works at a company on the street, said her motorbike broke down after 50 meters in the water, just a day after she paid to have it fixed from the previous floods.
“It’s been two days. I’m fed up,” Thuy told VnExpress. She said she would have spent the night at her office if she did not have a little baby at home.
Minh, who lives on Ung Van Khiem Street in Binh Thanh District, said he has never seen such “horrible” consecutive rains.
“I haven't finished cleaning up from last night, and now it's here again,” he said, tipping water out of his home from a bucket.
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A makeshift embankment to deal with the floods in Ho Chi Minh City on September 27. Photo by Duy Tran/VnExpress |
The entire five kilometers of Huynh Tan Phat Street in District 7 was flooded on Tuesday night.
A 20-meter high tree in the September 23rd Park near Ben Thanh Market was uprooted and crashed onto three parked cars and one that was passing by. It also dragged down an electric pilon and cables, that slammed onto three cars parked nearby.
No one was injured.
Several fallen trees in districts 3 and 10 also damaged motorbikes and street light poles.
The rain was terrible, but to many people in the city, it was not really a big surprise, especially after Monday.
A historic downpour of nearly two hours starting at around 5 p.m. on Monday flooded the city’s drainage system and at least 60 streets by up to 80 centimeters. Thousands of cars and motorbikes in basement parking lots were stuck.
The rainfall was measured at 179mm, the heaviest since 1975.
Heavy downpour in the neighboring Dong Nai Province on Monday also caused flash floods that killed an 18-year-old man.
The Southern Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Center said the southern rainy season is at its peak. The after effects from Typhoon Megi and strong monsoon winds will continue to cause heavy rains in the coming days.
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