Three killed as heavy rains drench northern Vietnam

Several mountainous provinces like Ha Giang, Yen Bai, Cao Bang and Lai Chau have recorded rainfall of between 120mm to 330mm a day. Rainfall of above 180mm a day is considered heavy.

On Tuesday evening, a family of three were buried in debris as a landslide crushed their house in Bac Quang District, Ha Giang Province. Two of them were rescued, but a child died on the way to the hospital.

A woman in Nguyen Binh District in Cao Bang Province on the Chinese border was going to a rice field on Tuesday when she slipped into a local stream and drowned. The district has seen 14 houses and 155 hectares (383 acres) of crops submerged in flood waters.

In Yen Bai, one man was swept away by flashfloods on Tuesday night and his body was retrieved on Wednesday. Local authorities said 47 houses in the province have been damaged to the tune of VND300 million ($12,800) thus far, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Poor districts in Ha Giang Province like Xin Man, Hoang Su Phi, Bac Me and Meo Vac have experienced prolonged downpours that have injured at least four people, damaged 34 houses and blocked some roads with landslides.

Vietnam’s Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said that northern mountainous provinces and north central provinces from Thanh Hoa to Ha Tinh are likely to be hit by flashfloods with water levels in rivers rising by two to four meters in the coming days.

The country was struck by nine tropical storms in 2018. Natural disasters, mostly flooding, tropical storms and landslides, killed 181 people and left 37 others missing last year. The disasters caused damage worth around VND20 trillion ($858 million).