Serious flooding in central Vietnam has killed three individuals and forced over 10,000 others to flee their homes, disaster officials said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, floods in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi destroyed significant sections of the country’s north, killing almost 300 people and causing $1.6 billion in damage.
But, while the Yagi flooding receded in the north, another strong storm hit central Vietnam last week, bringing torrential rain and dangerously high river levels.
Thanh Hoa province disaster management officials said Tuesday that over the last three days, more than 11,700 residents have fled their homes, many of which are partially inundated, in search of higher ground.
Three persons were killed in the adjoining province of Nghe An after being swept away by flash floods.
Since Saturday, around 320 residences have been damaged, with over 6,300 hectares of crops lost, according to the ministry of agriculture. At least 40 school buildings in the area have also been inundated or damaged.
Heavy rain caused flash floods in northern Thailand’s Lampang province, killing two people and affecting 1,500 houses, according to the kingdom’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation.
Authorities have also asked residents along the overflowing River Wang to flee to safety.
Typhoon Yagi caused widespread devastation in northern Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, killing 702 people.
Myanmar was the worst struck, with 384 deaths, followed by Vietnam with 299.
Save the Children reports that around 1,000 schools in Vietnam and Thailand have been destroyed since early September, forcing students to miss class.
Two and a half weeks after Yagi struck, some residences on the outskirts of Hanoi are still partially submerged, while farmers are still dealing with the impact of flooded fields.
Rice farmers were observed harvesting their crops weeks earlier than usual on Tuesday, hoping to save everything that hadn’t already been damaged.
“We lost practically all of our crops. Dinh Thi Thu, 60, told AFP, “We cut the rice today in the hopes of saving as much as we could.”
Vietnam is prone to tropical storms, which frequently cause devastating flash floods and landslides between June and November each year.
However, human-caused climate change is producing more extreme weather patterns, potentially increasing the likelihood of devastating floods.