Widespread flooding across Hanoi has led many office workers to spend the night in their offices rather than wade through treacherous waters to get home.
On the evening of September 30, relentless rain submerged major streets, disrupting traffic and paralyzing movement.
As the workday ended, the city entered full chaos. Schoolchildren were dismissed, employees were leaving their offices, and rain continued to pour while water levels rose. Roads were impassable.
Some decided not to fight the flood and instead chose to stay overnight at their workplaces.
Nguyen Quan, 32, who works in the Hoang Cau area, was among them.
“That was the smartest decision I made all day,” he said after getting a full night’s sleep at the office.
Hanoi office workers sleeping at their desks to avoid flooded roads.
Quan told VietNamNet that at around 5 p.m., he left the parking garage and tried to push his motorbike through the flooded street. But with water pouring down and thunder echoing, he gave up the idea of the 7km journey home and returned to the office.
Unexpectedly, he found five other colleagues who had the same idea. Together, they set up a “camp” at work.
They shared snacks like bread and instant noodles, then picked a quiet corner each and lay out mats to sleep.
“While scrolling social media and seeing people wading home in knee-deep water, I was lying on the floor in the office, dry and calm. I knew I made the right call,” he said.
“But not everyone can make that choice. Many still have to get home to care for their families,” he added.
Turning offices into canteens and rest stops
By 7 a.m. on October 1, while others were heading to work, Quan was just heading home. He decided to take a day off to shower and rest.
“My friends joked I went to work in September and didn’t return home until October,” he laughed.
Thu Hoai, still single, also stayed overnight at her office on Nguyen Chi Thanh Street instead of braving the 4km flooded route back to her home on Chua Boc Street.
Company canteens stayed open late to provide meals for stranded staff.
She called her parents to let them know she was safe and stayed at the office with colleagues who were equally unwilling to take the risk.
“Our neighborhood also flooded, which had never happened before in over ten years,” Hoai said.
They bought essentials like toothbrushes, towels, instant noodles, sausages, eggs, and cucumbers from a nearby supermarket to get through the night.
“It was inconvenient not to have a proper shower, but it was a small price to pay for safety and peace of mind,” she said.
A family split by water
Thanh Le, 35, had a sleepless night at the office, weighed down with worry about her family.
She usually commutes 6km from Tu Liem to her office and also drops her 8-year-old son at school 2km from home.
On September 30, aware of the worsening floods, she left work early to pick up her son. But her motorbike broke down in the water, forcing her to turn back and park it at the office basement.
Desperate, she tried walking to school, hoping to catch a ride along the way.
“But I couldn’t get anywhere. I was stuck in waist-deep water for nearly two hours,” she recalled.
Then she received a message from her son’s homeroom teacher: the school had decided to let the children stay overnight for safety, with food and sleeping arrangements provided.
“It was like winning the lottery,” she said, visibly relieved.
With her son safe, she decided it was wiser to stay at the office and informed her husband.
Her husband, who works 10km away, also found himself stranded. He, too, stayed at his office.
“That night, the three of us each slept in a different place - a first for our family,” she said.
At her office, about 15 colleagues stayed the night. They shared food, laughed, sang songs, and kept each other’s spirits up while waiting out the storm.
By 7 a.m., Le took a ride to pick up her son. Hearing his stories about sleeping at school with teachers and classmates made her feel reassured.
“Hanoi still had many flooded areas, but the skies were clearer, and so were our moods,” she said.
“We were lucky that schools and companies had emergency plans. If we had tried to get home through those floodwaters, I can’t imagine how exhausted we’d be.”
A city submerged, families apart
A Hanoi office during the night of flooding - turned into a temporary shelter.
Ngoc Anh, an office worker, also chose to sleep at her workplace rather than brave the flooded 7km route from Tran Huu Duc Street to her home on Truong Chinh Street.
She had hoped to pick up her child on Tran Duy Hung Street after work, but with intense rain and deeply flooded areas near My Dinh Stadium and Duong Dinh Nghe, the roads became impassable.
After two hours stuck in traffic, she had only moved 1km.
With no option left, she called her child’s teacher to arrange for the child to sleep at school and turned back to her office.
Her husband, stuck in An Khanh - an area heavily flooded - also had to stay at his workplace.
“In 15 years of living in Hanoi, I never imagined our family would be scattered across three locations because of flooding,” she said.
Fortunately, her company had stockpiled snacks and had floor mats, pillows, and blankets typically used during lunch breaks, making the overnight stay manageable.
Vietnamnet.vn
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