Rainfall ranging from 150mm to 400mm over the past two days has flooded communes and villages in the central provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa.

To handle rising water levels, 14 hydro-power plants and eight irrigation lakes in the central and Central Highlands region started discharging water through spillways on Dec. 15.

Six reservoirs of hydro-power plants in Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, and Phu Yen discharged huge volumes of water, ranging from 2,800 cubic metres per second to 917. The massive water discharge is expected to further exacerbate river and rain flooding in these areas.

Floods also isolated and interrupted traffic on 16 provincial roads in Thua Thien-Hue as main roads in the districts of Phong Dien, Quang Dien and Huong Tra were submerged in up to 2 metres of water.

Serious floods also occurred in the districts of Dai Loc, Dien Ban, Duy Xuyen and Hoi An City in Quang Nam; while four districts – Nghia Hanh, Mo Duc, Duc Pho and Tu Nghia – in Quang Ngai Province were also submerged in water as high as 1.5m.

More than 823 households in Tu Nghia District in Quang Ngai were isolated by flooding, while some inner roads of Quang Ngai City were also submerged.

Rescue forces in the central province helped 1,579 households move to safety.

In Phu Yen Province, 17 communes were flooded.

The Centre of Flood and Storm Prevention in the Central and Central Highlands regions forecast 200mm to 300mm rainfall in provinces from Thua Thien-Hue to Phu Yen till Saturday, while medium rainfall is expected in the coastal southcentral provinces through Sunday.

Water rose up from 1.8m to 2.5m (over the emergency grade 3) in Hoi An City and suburban areas along the Hoai River yesterday morning.

Traffic was also temporarily interrupted in some roads in Binh Dinh and Phu Yen.

In Da Nang city, floods also cut off 420 households in Hoa Lien Commune in suburban Hoa Vang District, while 105ha of newly seeded rice area was deeply submerged.

Rivers in Quang Nam, Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen and Gia Lai are expected to rise through the weekend. 

VNS