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Vehicles line up on Highway 60 heading towards Trung Luong junction on Feb. 11, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam |
By 4 p.m. on Sunday, many streets within a radius of one kilometer around the crossroads were still heavily flooded due to the high tide.
Some low-lying areas were flooded nearly half a meter, forcing vehicles to drive onto the higher parts of the road near the divider to avoid water.
Many motorbikes’ engines failed. Traffic police were present to redirect traffic, but the congestion and disorder continued for an extended period.
Many cars turned around to seek alternative routes due to concerns about vehicles stalling due to the floodwaters, worsening the traffic jam.
A simultaneous accident on Highway 60 caused a long traffic jam over 10 kilometers, from Trung Luong roundabout to the Rach Mieu Bridge toll station in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre. It took many cars more than an hour to cross the Rach Mieu Bridge.
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Cars and motorcycles are packed tightly together in an extending distance of over 10 kilometers at the Trung Luong junction on Feb. 11, 2024 due to the high tide and a traffic collision on Highway 60. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam |
The high tide also flooded homes, businesses, and schools along the road. Le Thi Thanh, 55, owner of a rice stall on Ap Bac street, part of the Highway 60, said that her business was sluggish due to continuous flooding.
"It began to flood on the night of the first day of Tet [Saturday]," she said. "And the water rose above the knee this [Sunday] afternoon. Every time a car passed, water flooded the house, forcing owners of shops alongside the road to desperately raise their belongings."
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Owners of shops alongside Ap Bac street are affected by the rising tide. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam |
Vo Van Thong, director of the Tien Giang Hydro-Meteorological Station, explained that the northeast monsoon blew strongly at this time of the year, causing the river to rise higher than usual. This year’s highest water level was just over 1.8 m, still lower than last year’s peak tide of 1.97 m in Tien Giang, he said.
"It may be that in previous years, the high tide occurred in the middle of the night with fewer vehicles passing by, so the impact on trade and traffic was less significant, and people paid less attention," he said, noting that the water level would continue to rise Monday night until early Tuesday morning before gradually decreasing.
