Late afternoon on October 8, when the floodwaters had not yet receded from the villages of Yen Binh, Van Nham and Huu Lung communes (Lang Son province), the scene here was still immense.
The turbid water flooded through the village road and the rice fields. Electric poles and tree tops become milestones in the middle of the ocean. In low-lying areas, the roof of a level four house only rises to the tiled top.
branches, straw and household items floated with the strong current.
Amidst the immense waves, a few small boats of local people still tried to row, carrying dry food bags, cardamom boxes and boxed fish to supply isolated households.
Sitting on the porch of a muddy stilt house, Mr. Hoang Van Khai (69 years old, Bai Vang village, Huu Lung commune) calmly watched the water carrying away pieces of wood.
He said in a low voice: "Since I was a child, I have witnessed many floods, but there have never been such a terrible one. The water rose so quickly that in just a few hours it overflowed the roof, and buffalo and cow were all floating. Fortunately, people are still alive".
In front of the yard, the first floor of the house was completely flooded. Surrounded by floodwaters on all sides, amidst the rush of people moving relief goods, Mr. Khai's wife still quietly cooks for lunch.
The makeshift kitchen is located on the side of the road, next to the duck cage and the lucky chickens that survived the flood. The remaining dry branches issued a thin, rare layer of smoke in the middle of the gray sea.
She cooking and saying: "The water rose so quickly that my family could only hold the chickens and ducks back and run onto the road, and the kitchen had to be flooded. The power was out, the gas stove was broken, so I had to temporarily store firewood in the stove on the street to cook rice for the day. Just eat whatever you have."
As soon as she spoke, she went into the house to get an oil lamp and quickly lit it up with a burning light. The sound of flying mosquitoes, frog sounds, the wind blowing through the roof harmonizes with the smell of newly cooked rice.
Not far away, Ms. Pham Thi Hang ( Bai Vang village) tried to get through a 20-liter filtered water bottle and a little food on the motorbike left after the flood.
"In two months, there were three floods, this was the biggest. We are exhausted. When the water rose, my parents and I had to run to the grandparents' house to temporarily take temporary shelter, while my husband stayed behind to look after the goods. But last night, the water rose too quickly, so we had to leave everything, and everyone was left with money" - Ms. Hang choked up in her voice.
In Van Nham commune, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Huy (Tan Nhien village, Van Nham commune) and young men in the village swam boats to receive relief goods.
"The flood is over, there is nothing left. The village has 80 houses, but 79 houses are flooded, only one house has a second floor. Now nearly 60 people, both elderly and children, are temporarily residing there" - Mr. Huy shared.
He said that all yesterday, only children were allowed to drink milk, while adults were almost starving because they were busy running away from the flood. It was not until the early morning of October 8 that everyone was able to cook a little porridge.
Early in the afternoon, the Ministry of National Defense's helicopters dropped relief goods to the isolated area, helping people have more food and drinking water.
According to the report of the People's Committee of Lang Son province, heavy rain that lasted for many days injured 2 people and affected more than 3,000 households due to house collapse, landslides, and flooding. The communes of Yen Binh, Van Nham, Huu Lung, Tuan Son, Cai Kinh, That Khe, Trang Dinh, Quoc Viet... were deeply flooded, traffic was cut off.
The whole province had more than 1,000 hectares of crops flooded, 80 hectares of fruit trees, 4 hectares of forest broken; 9 educational institutions damaged; 153 traffic points were flooded, with a total volume of landslides of more than 20,000 m3. Many bridges, culverts, and roads were cut off; some communes had power outages and interrupted communication.
Reporters' records in Huu Lung, Van Nham and Yen Binh show that the water level is still receding very slowly. Many houses are still submerged in water, people lack clean water, and have long-term power outages. Rescue forces are trying to approach to provide necessities to the people.
