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HUE, Vietnam: Thousands of people in Vietnam were evacuated from their homes after record rainfall of more than one meter in 24 hours submerged a central city, the environment ministry said Tuesday.
Three measuring stations in the city of Hue recorded rainfall from one meter to 1.7 meters (five feet seven inches) in a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday, the ministry said in a statement.
The previous 24-hour rain record was 0.99 meters, set in Hue in 1999, it said.
Heavy rainfall has inundated Vietnam’s central coastal region since the weekend, closing schools and flooding the former imperial city of Hue, a UNESCO world heritage site.
More than 8,600 people in four central provinces were evacuated to schools and other public buildings since Saturday due to risks from severe flooding and landslides, according to the environment ministry.
“This was the biggest flood I have experienced, with water levels in my house about 40 centimeters higher than that of 1999,” said 56-year-old Hue resident Tran Anh Tuan.
“My ground floor is under about two meters of floodwaters. We had moved all essential furniture upstairs. We have been in the dark over a day as power was cut off,” Tuan said from his three-story house in central Hue.
An image published by state media on Monday showed a room in a main hospital in the city flooded with murky water and two patients seated on gurneys.
Tourists in ancient Hoi An town were pictured in state media navigating narrow streets in boats while AFP journalists saw authorities evacuate several people from heavily flooded areas.
“The level of natural disaster risk due to flash floods and landslides is at the highest level,” said Mai Van Khiem, director of the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, according to a government website.
More rain was forecast for the central provinces into Wednesday, he added.
Some schools were closed in the cities of Hue and Danang beginning Saturday while the railway linking the country’s north and south saw delays due to flooding.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather events like storms and floods more deadly and destructive.
Vietnam’s mountainous north and capital Hanoi were under severe flooding in early October following typhoons Bualoi and Matmo.
Natural disasters, mostly storms, floods and landslides, left 187 people dead or missing in the Southeast Asian nation in the first nine months of this year.
Total economic losses were estimated at more than $610 million, the General Statistics Office said.

NEW DELHI: Indian authorities have shut schools and evacuated tens of thousands of people from low-lying coastal areas as the country’s eastern seaboard braces for the impact of Cyclone Montha later Tuesday.
Swirling over the Bay of Bengal, Montha has intensified into a severe cyclonic storm, and is expected to make a landfall tonight near the port city of Kakinada in southern Andhra Pradesh, the weather office said in its latest bulletin.
The storm is currently hovering around 160 kilometers southeast of Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
It is expected to intensify, bringing winds of 90 kph to 110 kph as it pushes toward the country’s eastern coastline and make landfall.
The weather office has issued red alerts for 19 districts in Andhra Pradesh, forecasting extremely heavy rains. The neighboring states of Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Kerela and Karnataka are also expected to receive moderate to heavy showers.
Disaster teams in Andhra Pradesh have so far moved 38,000 people from low-lying areas to relief camps, according to a state disaster official. The state government estimates around 4 million people to be in vulnerable zones and likely to be affected by the cyclone.
The authorities have readied 1,906 relief camps and 364 school shelters as evacuations continue in 1,238 vulnerable villages, state’s minister for communications Nara Lokesh said in a social media post.
Schools and colleges have been ordered to remain shut till Wednesday and fishermen warned not to venture into sea for fishing. Trains and flight services were partially disrupted on Tuesday.
In Odisha, the state administration has begun shifting around 32,000 people from vulnerable areas to relief camps, a state disaster official said.
Climate scientists say severe storms are becoming more frequent in South Asia. Global warming driven by planet-heating gases has caused them to become more extreme and unpredictable.
India’s eastern coasts have long been prone to cyclones, but the number of intense storms is increasing along the country’s coast. 2023 was India’s deadliest cyclone season in recent years, killing 523 people and causing an estimated $2.5 billion in damage.