Mach Van Si, a Dak Lak farmer, told the AFP, “Our neighborhood was completely destroyed. Nobody could save anything. Everything was mud.”
At least 90 individuals have lost their lives and another 12 are missing after heavy rain triggered flooding and landslides in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese government reports that 186,000 houses have been affected throughout the nation, and over three million livestock lost. Officials calculated hundreds of millions of pounds worth of damage has occurred.
The province of Dak Lak has been heavily impacted, seeing more than 60 deaths since 16 November, according to the news agency AFP.
Flooding is the latest of the extreme weather events affecting Vietnam in recent months, after typhoons Kalmaegi and Bualoi struck the country close to one another.
As of Sunday morning, about 258,000 people were without power, highways and train tracks experienced blockage, officials added.
Military and police resources have been mobilized to help in areas that need it most.
The government reported the most serious impact was seen in five provinces – Quang Ngai, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Khanh Hoa, and Lam Dong – all of which are located in south and south-central Vietnam.
Mach Van Si, a Dak Lak farmer, told the AFP, “Our neighborhood was completely destroyed. Nobody could save anything. Everything was mud.”
On Sunday morning from South Africa, where he was attending the G20 summit, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính presided over a virtual emergency meeting.
There was more than 1.5m (5ft) of rain in some areas leading up to Friday, and some areas had already surpassed a 5.2m level that hasn’t happened since 1993. We should expect some relief over the next few days, with rain tapering.
Scientists are saying that as a result of human-induced climate change, Vietnam has been more exposed to extreme weather events, and typhoons have become more powerful and frequent.
