At around 6:30 p.m., the dike section at the foot of Ba Thon 2 bridge on To Ngoc Van street (formerly District 12) suddenly broke several meters wide. The incident occurred right at the time of the highest high tide of the year, combined with local heavy rain in the afternoon, causing river water to quickly overflow into coastal residential areas.
Immediately after discovering the incident, the local authorities mobilized militia, militia, police and people to build bamboo shoots, layer sandbags, and make efforts to reinforce the broken dike section.
Mr. Tran Van Tam (58 years old, living near the bank of Ong Dung canal) shared: "The water rose too quickly, the dike broke and overflowed into the residential area. The heavy rain has already happened in the past few days, now there is another record high tide. Everyone is racing against the country, just hoping that the authorities will be able to reinforce them in time."
At 9:00 p.m. the same day, the authorities were still on duty at the scene, mobilizing large-capacity pumps to pump water out of the residential area. The authorities have advised people not to move through deeply flooded areas, especially the location of the dike under construction, to ensure safety.
At the same time, the circulation of storm No. 13 (Kalmaegi) caused widespread heavy rain in the Southern region, making the flooding situation in Ho Chi Minh City more serious. Many roads such as Tran Xuan Soan, Huynh Tan Phat (formerly District 7), National Highway 50 (formerly Binh Chanh District) and Thanh Da area (formerly Binh Thanh District) were deeply flooded, traffic was paralyzed, people had difficulty moving during rush hour.
