The whole village escaped the fierce flood
We returned to Peng village, Khe Dom village, Phong Du Ha commune, Lao Cai province in mid-March. The concrete road winding halfway up the mountain, about 15 kilometers long, leading to the village, still bears traces of landslides from last year's rainy season.
Here, just over 5 months ago, a terrible flash flood due to the circulation of storm No. 10 broke the peace of the small Red Dao village, sweeping away the homes and property of the people.
Mr. Ban Tien Ly recalled emotionally that at about 6 pm on September 29, 2025, torrential rains continuously poured down non-stop, and the water in the stream suddenly rose unusually high.
After that, turbulent, muddy streams of mud and water rushed down from the top of the mountain. The floodwaters poured down from the front door, piercing through the back door in just a moment. Both husband and wife were swept away by the raging water.
Luckily, I had a flashlight on my head at that time, so I could see the direction of the run, just surfacing, I tried to pull my wife back, the two of us drifted and clung to the fence of a wall built adjacent to the two houses," Mr. Ly recounted.
The couple escaped death by a hair's breadth but had to stay in the hospital for nearly half a month to treat injuries.
Worry about no livelihood
After the flood, people's houses were devastated, fields and gardens were completely buried, livestock, poultry, and food stored were swept away by water.
From empty hands after the incident, with the help of 100 million VND from the State and borrowed money, Mr. Ly's family rebuilt a spacious wooden house worth more than 500 million VND in a higher and safer location.
Not far from there, Mr. Ban Ton Kieu's family, after receiving 100 million VND from the State, also tried to build a safe wooden house.
To save costs, the family salvaged the large wooden bodies swept away by the flash flood, saw them open to rebuild the house. "It takes a lot of effort to saw the wood, it takes a lot of effort, but having a safe house like this is already reassuring, no longer afraid of floods," Mr. Kieu shared.
Besides the new houses in the safe area, many households are still clinging to the area where the flood just passed. According to them, here are all assets and fields attached for generations. Coming to a new place to live, they do not know how to live.
Ms. Trieu Thi Trang, while diligently rummaging and picking up each dry firewood branch on the field, said: "The fields are all flooded. Now just pick up stones and firewood first to have a place to grow corn. All the rice and feed for chickens and pigs depend on these fields.
We also know that it is not safe here because there are still many cracks on the mountain, but leaving is regrettable. Every time it rains, we temporarily stay at relatives' houses. Now if we move, we will not have money to build a house, and there will be no jobs to make a living.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Tran Duc Thinh, Vice Chairman of Phong Du Ha Commune People's Committee, said that due to the impact of the circulation of storm No. 10 in 2025, the whole commune has 17 households seriously affected, including households that were completely collapsed and washed away and households that had to be urgently relocated. With drastic involvement, after only 2 months, the commune has basically completed the allocation of residential land and building houses for people.
Mr. Thinh said that currently, restoring the agricultural area buried is a problem beyond the financial capacity of communes and people. The area of rice fields in the highlands is very small, people really need land.
Currently, the cost to remove soil and rock layers and restore fields is very large. We hope the province will continue to provide support policies to help people soon restore livelihoods and continue production on their own land.
