Northern Vietnam Floods Kill Three, Inundate Thousands of Homes
Heavy rain since mid-September has killed three people in northern Vietnam, flooded thousands of homes and damaged over 22,000 hectares of crops.
Heavy rainfall across northern Vietnam has triggered flooding and landslides that left three people dead, inundated thousands of homes and damaged more than 22,000 hectares of rice and other crops, authorities said.
Downpours have battered the region since Sept. 14, with some locations recording as much as 653 millimetres of rain. More than 16,000 houses have been flooded.
Transport links have been badly hit. Eleven landslides and flooding at 30 locations have disrupted national and provincial roads, causing traffic snarls. The Hanoi–Ho Chi Minh City railway was submerged under about a metre of water, forcing the suspension of several north–south train services on Thursday and Friday.
In the northern coastal province of Thanh Hoa, more than 29,000 officials and soldiers were deployed for emergency relief. In Hanoi, some schools shifted to online classes or gave students the day off on Thursday as streets in the centre of the capital were covered by up to a metre of floodwater, causing gridlock.
More heavy rain is expected from Thanh Hoa to the city of Hue through the weekend, with some areas forecast to receive more than 100 millimetres.
Vietnam's long coastline leaves it exposed to storms arriving from the South China Sea, while climate change and deforestation have raised the risk of severe damage. As many as five more storms are expected off the coast for the remainder of the year, with one or two potentially reaching the mainland.
Natural disasters have killed or left 63 people missing in Vietnam in 2026, with total losses of about 2.2 trillion dong ($84.6 million). Financial damage is down 84.9% from the same period last year, when the country was struck by severe typhoons and flooding.
Separately, El Nino is expected to cut rainfall in central and southern Vietnam by 10% to 50% later this year, potentially affecting around 350,000 hectares of rice in the Mekong Delta. Severe water shortages are also forecast in the central highlands, the country's largest coffee-growing region.