Heavy Rain in Northern Vietnam Causes Houses to Collapse, Kills 2 in Chuong My District

Five houses fell into the Da River on Monday following heavy rains, while Hanoi is considering evacuating thousands from a flood-hit district.

A dozen families are at risk in Dong Tien Ward after a number of houses slowly collapsed into the riverbank. Families in the ward, which is two hours west of Hanoi in Hoa Binh Province, noticed cracks appearing in the ground on Monday afternoon, VnExpress reports.

Later that day, hundreds of police and army personal turned up at the scene and helped evacuate families. By 7pm that evening, five houses had half-fallen into the river.

There have been mixed responses about the cause of the disaster. Nguyen Thanh Huy, a local official, told the news source that authorities have warned of erosion since last year due to an increase in landslides. Some local residents, on the other hand, blamed it on the closure of the flood discharge gates at the Hoa Binh hydropower dam, which they say causes water levels on the Da River to rapidly recede.

This isn’t the first case of houses being pulled down by erosion this year. In May, five houses were swallowed up in the Mekong Delta, an area that has faced serious and repeated erosion and loss of houses.  

Meanwhile, Hanoi is considering the evacuation of 14,000 citizens in a flood-prone district, Reuters reports. The Bui River, 20 kilometers west of Hanoi, has risen to an “alarming level,” according to the Hanoi People’s Committee.

Two children in Chuong My District drowned and 1,000 houses have been flooded, while 4,000 citizens have already been evacuated from the area, the news source shares.  

[Photo via VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh]

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