That is the story in Nu Village, Phuc Khanh Commune, Bao Yen District, Lao Cai Province.
Hoang Van Thoi's bewildered eyes after the pain of losing a loved one. After the flash flood, Thoi lost his mother, wife and three children - Photo: NGUYEN KHANH
The flash flood that occurred in Lang Nu on the morning of September 10 buried everything. The entire village of 37 stilt houses that used to be nestled next to the fields, now only remains a mud puddle. Anywhere under the thick layer of mud, there could be a resident of this very village lying there.
Floods destroy everything
The first bodies to be brought up from the mud of Lang Nu on the morning of September 11 were 5 members of Hoang Van Thoi's family. The man in his 30s cried next to a few wooden coffins made temporarily from old, cracked, moldy planks that had not been planed to be smoother. Thoi's previous home was on the other side of the field, opposite Hamlet 37, where the houses were swept away by the flood. The old house had a landslide, so during the stormy days he brought his wife and children to his mother's house to sleep. On the fateful night of September 9, Thoi slept in his old house again. The next morning, when he heard a rumbling sound like a mine exploding, he ran out of the house and saw only a vast expanse of mud and water. The stream was flowing, and rocks and house pillars were crashing into each other. "Everything is gone! My family of 7 is left with only me... I just hope to find my child and my brother's child. One is 1 year old, the other is only 2...", Mr. Thoi said, then collapsed on the tiny coffin and sobbed. In the same village as Mr. Thoi, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Diep did not return home until the afternoon of September 10. Mr. Diep works in Lao Cai city, and for the past few days he has not been able to contact his family, so he risked riding his motorbike through dozens of landslides to get home. When he reached the village entrance, Mr. Diep's legs went weak when he saw his beloved house was now just a pile of mud. He lost all 5 relatives, and one nephew was lucky to escape. Yesterday afternoon, September 11, soldiers found his mother under the mud a few dozen meters from the house. Mr. Diep clenched his teeth to hide his tears and stretched a tarp to protect his mother from the rain. With no house left, the funeral was cold without drums and trumpets right next to the field. The Lang Nu field area with a winding stream was previously devastated by mud. The stream water was still flowing fiercely. Everywhere there were scattered roofs, house pillars, and after a few steps, they stepped on motorbikes. The excavator that another commune had left in the village was swept away by the flood for hundreds of meters, completely crushed. Mr. Sam Van Bong's truck was also crumpled like scrap paper by the flood. At this point, finding someone still alive was already a blessing.
"I guess I have to leave the village"
Mrs. Truong Thi Mung has been a daughter-in-law in Lang Nu for 30 years and she has never witnessed such a terrible flood. "It exploded high into the sky, rolling into lumps wherever it went. When it got here, there was nothing left to see, only dirt!", Mrs. Mung exclaimed. That morning, Mrs. Mung woke up because the sound of the stream was too loud. She climbed the hill behind her house and saw the flood water rushing. Mrs. Mung ran to the community house, at that time there were 4 other people. They heard a "rumble" like thunder and then rocks and trees were thrown into the sky. All 5 people shouted to each other to run, but after only a short distance, the flood water rushed to the yard of the cultural house. The woman wiped away her tears and ran around with the people to help the victims . She also hoped to quickly find her mother-in-law and 2 missing grandchildren. All the fields and gardens were gone, the house was no longer sturdy, Mrs. Mung went to sleep at a neighbor's house hoping for the rain to stop. However, God did not seem to care for the people of Lang Nu. It has been pouring rain all day, the streams in the mountain range behind the village are muddy, threatening another landslide. Village chief Lang Nu Hoang Van Diep has not dared to sleep at home for the past few days. His whole family has been "evacuating", he is busy with village affairs, and has also encouraged his neighbors to temporarily stay in other safer houses. "The mountains are still high, and with this wind and rain, the water in the streams is flowing out! We will have to leave the village! We can't stay because we don't know if there will be more landslides or flash floods. We just hope to be supported in resettlement so we can settle down and make a living," said Mr. Diep.
Particularly large damage
As of 5 p.m. on September 11, the death toll in Lang Nu had risen to 34, with 61 people still missing. Mr. Dang Xuan Phong, Secretary of Lao Cai Provincial Party Committee, said that this was the biggest natural disaster in the area ever, both in terms of the number of dead and missing. "We are developing a plan for the most effective and safest search and rescue. In a very difficult area with fragmented terrain, we will restore the necessary conditions in order of priority. Focus on search and rescue work, prioritizing the search for those who are still missing. Along with the search, we are also preparing for the funerals of the victims," said Mr. Phong. Military Region 2 has mobilized 300 soldiers to the area of Phuc Khanh commune, setting up a field command post in Lang Nu. Of which, 100 soldiers will search along Nu stream from Chay river in, 200 soldiers will search directly in the landslide area. Lieutenant General Pham Hong Chuong, Commander of Military Region 2 and Lao Cai Provincial Party Secretary Dang Xuan Phong directly commanded.
Choking up waiting for news of relatives
Three women with the pain of losing loved ones hugged each other and cried painfully - Photo: NGUYEN KHANH
On the afternoon of September 11, at the emergency room of Bao Yen District General Hospital (Lao Cai), Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim said that early in the morning of September 10, the mother and daughter (she and her daughter) were sleeping in the room of the flat-roofed house that the family had just built when they heard a very loud explosion like a bomb or mine exploding. "When I opened my eyes, I found myself flying out of the house, surrounded by water and buffaloes, cows, pigs... I touched my hand and found that my arm was broken and called my child everywhere but couldn't find him. I only heard the sound of strong water flowing, so I tried to reach out to find him, but my arm was broken so I couldn't go far. A moment later, very luckily, my child could swim so he didn't sink but crawled out of the mud and sat on a plank calling me: "Mom, save me". I heard it, quickly turned around and tried to reach that plank...", Ms. Kim recalled. According to Ms. Kim, at that time, some passersby discovered her but saw her lying still so they thought she had died. However, at that time, perhaps everyone saw the child crying so they hurriedly used all means to pull the board in. When rescuing the child, they saw that her hand was still waving, so they let go of the electric wire and pulled her up. Her left hand was not broken so she grabbed the electric wire and was pulled up. "Thinking back now, I'm still really scared," said Ms. Kim. Ms. Kim choked up when more than a dozen relatives living around the house were killed by the flash flood and have not been found yet. Along with that, the entire house and pets of the family were also destroyed and swept away by the flood. In the bed next to her, Ms. Kim's daughter, N., also suffered multiple injuries, her face was swollen and she had a high fever of 39.5 degrees Celsius. Mr. Ha Son Giang (Ms. Kim's husband) said that he woke up early that day to go out to check the water at the stream and after a loud explosion, he saw mud and flood water sweeping down very strongly so he quickly ran up to the high hill area next to her, escaping in time. According to Mr. Giang, everything happened very quickly, only within 2-3 minutes after the loud explosion, mud and rocks swept everything away. Immediately after that, he and a few neighbors went searching along the stream and rescued 3 people and took them to the emergency room. "My whole family was very lucky and perhaps the times my daughter went to her grandfather's house to play, was allowed to bathe in the water tank, helped her learn to swim, emerged from the mud and cried, so she was rescued," said Mr. Giang. Lying opposite the hospital bed of Ms. Kim and her child, Hoang NL (6 years old) was also saved with a diagnosis of multiple injuries. Sitting next to her, Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh (52 years old) looked at her granddaughter and wiped away her tears, saying that her grandmother, parents, and brother were all swept away by the flash flood, and now we don't know if they have been found yet. According to Ms. Thanh, her house is also in Nu village but at the beginning of the village, so luckily it was not affected by the flash flood. By the afternoon of September 10, a representative of Bao Yen District General Hospital said that 9 seriously ill patients had been transferred to Lao Cai Provincial General Hospital for further treatment. There are 10 patients still being treated at the hospital. Whenever mentioning their relatives, despite the pain caused by their injuries, the victims choked up because they had no information about their relatives.
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