By UCA News reporter
VIETNAM – Church groups have joined rescue operations across central Vietnam after torrential rains and floods since Oct 22 killed at least ten people and forced thousands from their homes, officials said.
The Agriculture and Environment Ministry said about 100,000 houses in Hue and Da Nang were inundated, with floodwaters reaching up to four meters in some areas.
More than 150 landslides were reported and 2,200 hectares of crops were damaged across the region.
As emergency teams battled rising waters, Catholic aid workers mobilized quickly.
Father Philippe Hoang Linh, deputy director of Caritas in the Hue Archdiocese, said church volunteers used boats to deliver food and drinking water to hundreds stranded in flooded homes.
“We have to use boats to navigate narrow alleys to deliver food and drinking water — a gesture of humanity that rekindles hope amid hardship,” he said.
Many church facilities, including the Hue Archbishop’s House and Pastoral Center, were flooded, while parishes on higher ground opened their doors to shelter displaced families.
In Quy Lai Parish, priests and laypeople distributed noodles and drinking water.
“We’re trying to help people survive this difficult time. Many have lost all their food and belongings,” said Father John Baptist Pham Xu.
Residents said floodwaters rose rapidly after hydropower plants released water from swollen reservoirs.
“The water reached chest level inside our house, and electricity has been out since Oct 27,” said Peter Nguyen, a Hue resident and father of two. “Much of our furniture was swept away.”
Nguyen said a Catholic who died on Oct 26 could not be buried because of the floods. “The family had to move the coffin to higher ground and wait for the waters to recede before holding the burial,” he added.
Meteorologists warned that heavy rains could continue through the weekend, raising the risk of more landslides and flash floods in the saturated central provinces.
Hue recorded 1,739 millimeters of rain in 24 hours on Oct. 26-27 — the highest ever measured in Vietnam, where annual totals typically range between 1,400 and 2,400 millimeters.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Oct 29 ordered immediate relief aid — including two tons of dry food and 150 billion dong (US $5.8 million) for Hue — and urged officials to “use every means” to deliver supplies to residents trapped in isolated areas.
The government deployed 17,000 soldiers to evacuate more than 21,000 people from high-risk zones.
Truong Ba Kien of the Center for Meteorological and Climate Research said the extreme rainfall resulted from a convergence of rare weather systems, including a cold front from China, remnants of Storm Fengshen, a tropical convergence zone, and strong easterly winds meeting the Bach Ma Mountains.
Government data show that storms and floods have killed or left missing 187 people nationwide since January, damaged over 240,000 hectares of crops, and caused an estimated US $610 million in economic losses. – UCA News
