VN Express –
Five houses were drowned after the Nha Man River in the southern province of Dong Thap breached its bank on Monday. The breach, in Tan Nhuan Dong Commune of Chau Thanh District, is 100 meters long and four meters into the river bank.
“I heard a loud rumbling and the sound of the earth being torn apart in the middle of the night,” a local said.
“When everyone ran out to check, the houses were already under water.”
No one was injured, Dang Minh Dong, chairman of the commune People’s Committee, said.
After authorities discovered signs of erosion a few days earlier, they already advised people not to stay in their houses on Sunday night, he added.
Authorities are trying to salvage the wreckage and recover lost properties from under the river. Temporary shelters have been arranged for people who lost their homes, and six other households in the vicinity, also threatened by the breach, have been evacuated.
Land erosion has become a frequent occurrence in many coastal and riverine provinces in Vietnam, claiming hundreds of houses in the last decade.