A tropical depression that used to be Storm Son Ca brought widespread and heavy rains to localities from Quang Tri to Quang Nam Provinces on Friday night. The most heavily impacted areas were Da Nang and Thua Thien-Hue.
In Thua Thien-Hue, on Saturday morning, rising water levels along the Huong River inundated Hue tourist town and surrounding areas. Flood levels at 0.3-0.8 meters affected around 11,200 homes.
From midnight to 3 a.m. Saturday, the average rain level in the area was recorded at 400-550 millimeters, with some areas reaching as high as 735 mm.
Hundreds of homes on Nguyen Cong Tru Street of Phu Hoi Ward were flooded by over a meter, paralyzing traffic.
In the neighboring Quang Nam Province, floods are now mostly observed in Dai Loc District, which received around 150-200 millimeters of rain between 7 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Saturday.
Because of the rain and water discharge at hydropower plants, floods along the Vu Gia River rose to 9.12 meters. Thousands of homes were submerged by 0.2-1 meters.
Two employees at a general hospital must wade through the water on foot to get home.
On Friday night, the Dak Mi 4, A Vuong and Song Bung hydropower plants discharged up to 1,500 cubic meters of water per second. After about five hours, water from the river began to overflow into residential areas.
On Saturday morning, floods began to recede as hydropower plants reduced water output to 700 cubic meters per second.
A house next to Vu Gia River is flooded by 40 centimeters.
Nguyen Manh Tuan lies on a bed, watching the water to make sure his belongings could be moved to higher places if needed.
"The water came at around 4 a.m. Throughout the night, I moved my belongings to safety," he said, adding the flood is the second one this year and about 10 centimeters higher than the first.
