Hoi An ancient town urgently cleans up the consequences of floods

On the morning of October 31, in the ancient town of Hoi An, floodwaters began to recede, and the streets in the old town were filled with mud, leaves, and garbage. Since early morning, thousands of people and armed forces have been busy cleaning up mud in houses and on the streets.

People gathered to clean up their shops to return to business as soon as the floodwaters receded. Photo: Tran Le Lam/VNA

In recent days, rising floodwaters have forced the three-generation family of Ms. Pham Thi Bich Ni (Hoi An Ward, Da Nang City) to live in a small attic in a level 4 house. While quickly sweeping the mud out of the house, Ms. Ni shared her family's situation: "I was born and raised here, it's been more than 40 years since I witnessed such a terrible flood, the most historic flood ever. My whole family lives in the attic, eating instant noodles, and sometimes we get to eat rice provided by the State. The water rose very quickly, we couldn't react in time, especially the last flood caused a lot of damage, almost every house was damaged. My family's washing machine, refrigerator, TV, two motorbikes..."

In the old Cam Nam ward, the flood water was still ankle-deep, and the mud on the road was about 10 cm thick. Households were busy sweeping, spraying water from inside their houses onto the road, then leveling and clearing the mud on the road. Many people in the non-flooded areas also called each other to bring shovels, hoes, and brooms to help people in the flooded areas.

Standing at Hoang Dieu bridge, handing out charity meals to everyone, Ms. Nguyen Giao Chau (Hoi An ward, Da Nang city) said: My house was not flooded, so the sisters volunteered to take care of the people, cook, and bring water to people in difficult areas. In Hoi An, it has become a tradition that after each flood, everyone joins hands and contributes to help each other. People who live far away send supplies to support, people who live nearby just work, cook, and bring them to people, to support flood cleanup.

Mr. Dinh Quang Vinh also took the opportunity to ride his motorbike from his house in Hoi An Tay ward to his relatives' house in Hoi An ward to help clean up. According to Mr. Vinh, we have to clean up as soon as the water starts to recede, pushing the mud to where the water comes out, then wait for the electricity to come back on and turn on the water to spray from the inside out to clean it up. Mr. Vinh also said that this flood is very big, according to the elders, it is even bigger than the historic flood in the year of the Dragon 1964.

In schools in Hoi An ward, teachers are busy cleaning and washing classrooms and desks to quickly bring students back to the curriculum. Mr. Ta Ngoc Tri, Principal of Tran Quoc Toan Primary and Secondary School (Hoi An ward, Da Nang city) and all teachers and staff of the school are trying their best to clean up the consequences of the flood.

Mr. Tri shared that, in response to the flood information, the school proactively moved teaching equipment to higher ground. As for heavy equipment such as desks, chairs, and cabinets, which could not be moved by force, the school arranged them higher than the flood level in 2017.

However, this year the water level is higher than expected, so some tables, chairs, and cabinets are flooded, but the teaching equipment is still stable. The school aims to clean everything before students return to school. Teachers and military forces will try to complete the work on Saturday and Sunday. If the work is guaranteed, the school will report to the People's Committee of Hoi An Ward to let students return to school on Monday.

Joining hands and working side by side with teachers to clean up were hundreds of officers and soldiers of Military School of Military Region 5. Thanks to the strength of the military force, on the morning of October 31, tons of mud were pushed out of classrooms and the school yard.

According to Colonel Truong Thanh Quang, Deputy Political Commissar of Military School of Military Region 5, in the morning of the same day, the school organized to send 130 officers and soldiers to Hoi An ward to support teachers and people in cleaning up. When arriving, the water was receding rapidly, many schools needed support, so the unit divided the force into 5 schools to deploy with teachers to clean up the mud.

These are the most difficult schools, with the most severe impact, the soldiers and teachers worked hard but there was still a lot of mud. This afternoon, the unit continued to send about 200 more officers and soldiers to support Hoi An ward in cleaning up and stabilizing life after the flood.

According to the Da Nang City Military Command, yesterday, October 30, the entire city of Da Nang had 29 communes and wards that were heavily flooded, including Hoi An Ward. The central ward of Hoi An recorded 5,826 flooded households, accounting for over 80% of the ward's area, with flooding levels ranging from 0.5 - 2m...

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/xa-hoi/pho-co-hoi-an-khan-truong-don-dep-hau-qua-mua-lu-20251031141401372.htm