Flash floods kill 3 in Vietnam, 9 missing
HANOI : Flash floods struck Vietnam's mountainous north overnight, killing at least three people while nine others are missing, disaster authorities said today.
Heavy rain of up to 30cm triggered the floods in the provinces of Son La, Phu Tho, Tuyen Quang and especially Dien Bien, isolating several communities.
The ministry of agriculture said three people were killed while a search is ongoing for nine others in Dien Bien province's Tia Dinh and Xa Dung communes.
State media quoted local authorities as saying rain was heavy from 3am, triggering flash floods from upstream.
Several villages became flooded and remained inaccessible by this afternoon.
Last weekend, flash floods claimed five lives in Son La province, inundating crops and washing away poultry and cattle.
Vietnam is now in its tropical storm season, which often cause deadly floods and landslides.
Scientists say human-driven climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.
In September 2024, Typhoon Yagi devastated northern Vietnam, leaving 345 people dead and causing an estimated economic loss of US$3.3 billion.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Third-hottest July on record wreaks climate havoc
Eleven countries experienced their hottest July in at least a half-century, including China, Japan, North Korea, Tajikistan, Bhutan, Brunei and Malaysia. (AFP pic) PARIS : The third-hottest July worldwide ended a string of record-breaking temperatures last month, but many regions were still devastated by extreme weather amplified by global warming, the European climate monitoring service said Thursday. Heavy rains flooded Pakistan and northern China; Canada, Scotland and Greece struggled to tame wildfires intensified by persistent drought; and many nations in Asia and Scandinavia recorded new average highs for the month. 'Two years after the hottest July on record, the recent streak of global temperature records is over,' Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. 'But that does not mean climate change has stopped,' he said. 'We continue to witness the effects of a warming world.' A misleading dip As in June, July showed a slight dip compared to the preceding two years, averaging 1.25°C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) era. 2023 and 2024 warmed above that benchmark by more than 1.5°C, which is the Paris Agreement target set in 2015 for capping the rise in global temperatures at relatively safe levels. That deceptively small increase has been enough to make storms, heatwaves and other extreme weather events far more deadly and destructive. 'We continued to witness the effect of a warming world in events such as extreme heatwaves and catastrophic floods in July,' Buontempo said. Last month, temperatures exceeded 50°C in the Gulf, Iraq and – for the first time – Turkey, while torrential rains killed hundreds of people in China and Pakistan. In Spain, more than a thousand deaths were attributed by a public institute to the heat in July, half as many as in the same period in 2024. The main source of the CO2 driving up temperatures is well known: the burning of oil, coal and gas to generate energy. 'Unless we rapidly stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, we should expect not only new temperature records but also a worsening of impacts,' Buontempo said. Regional contrasts Global average temperatures are calculated using billions of satellite and weather readings, both on land and at sea, and the data used by Copernicus extends back to 1940. Even if July was milder in some places than in previous years, 11 countries experienced their hottest July in at least a half-century, including China, Japan, North Korea, Tajikistan, Bhutan, Brunei and Malaysia, according to AFP calculations. In Europe, Nordic countries saw an unprecedented string of hot days, including more than 20 days above 30°C across Finland. More than half of Europe along with the Mediterranean region experienced the worst drought conditions in the first part of July since monitoring began in 2012, according to an AFP analysis of data from the European Drought Observatory. In contrast, temperatures were below normal in North and South America, India and parts of Australia and Africa, as well as in Antarctica. Seas still overheating Last month was also the third-hottest July on record for sea surface temperatures. Locally, however, several ocean records for July were broken: in the Norwegian Sea, in parts of the North Sea, in the North Atlantic west of France and Britain. The extent of Arctic sea ice was 10% below average, the second lowest for a July in 47 years of satellite observations, virtually tied with the readings of 2012 and 2021. Diminishing sea ice is a concern not because it adds to sea levels, but because it replaces the snow and ice that reflect almost all the Sun's energy back into space with deep blue ocean, which absorbs it. Ninety percent of the excess heat generated by global warming is absorbed by the oceans. In Antarctica, sea ice extent is the third lowest on record for this month.
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Heavy rains leave 30 dead in Chinese capital
A woman walks through a flooded street after heavy rain in Miyun district on the outskirts of Beijing. (AP pic) BEIJING : Heavy rains in the Chinese capital Beijing have killed 30 people and prompted authorities to evacuate 80,000, state media said Tuesday. Intense rainstorms have pummelled swathes of northern China this week, including the capital and the provinces of Hebei, Jilin and Shandong. 'The latest round of heavy rainstorms has left 30 people dead in Beijing as of midnight Monday,' state news agency Xinhua said, citing the city's municipal flood control headquarters. Over 80,000 people have been evacuated in the Chinese capital alone, local state-run outlet Beijing Daily said on social media. It added that 'continuous extreme heavy rainfall caused major disasters'. The death toll was highest in Miyun, a suburban district northeast of the city centre, it said. Also badly affected were Huairou district in the north of the city and Fangshan in the southwest, state media said. Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said. 'Please pay attention to weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary,' the outlet said. Chinese President Xi Jinping urged authorities late Monday to plan for worst-case scenarios and rush the relocation of residents of flood-threatened areas. In Hebei province, which encircles the capital, a landslide in a village near the city of Chengde killed four people, with eight still missing, state broadcaster CCTV reported Monday. Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat. China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that scientists say drive climate change and contribute to making extreme weather more frequent and intense. But it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060. Flash floods in the eastern Shandong province killed two people and left 10 missing this month. A landslide on a highway in Sichuan province this month also killed five people after it swept several cars down a mountainside.
Free Malaysia Today
an hour ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Japan sweats through hottest July on record
Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent around the world. (AFP pic) TOKYO : Japan sweltered through its hottest July since records began in 1898, the weather agency has reported, warning of further 'severe heat' in the month ahead. Heatwaves are becoming more intense and frequent the world over because of human-caused climate change, scientists say, and Japan is no exception. The average temperature in July was up a record 2.89°C from the 1991-2020 average for the month, the Japan Meteorological Agency said on Friday. It was the third year in a row of record-breaking average temperatures for July, it said. On July 30, Japan experienced its highest recorded temperature, a sizzling 41.2°C in the western region of Hyogo. 'The next month is expected to continue to bring severe heat throughout the country,' the weather agency said. Precipitation in July was low over wide areas of Japan, with northern regions facing the Sea of Japan experiencing record low rainfall, it added. The rainy season ended about three weeks earlier than usual in western regions of Japan, another record. Experts warn Japan's beloved cherry trees are blooming earlier due to the warmer climate or sometimes not fully blossoming because autumns and winters are not cold enough to trigger flowering. The famous snowcap of Mount Fuji was absent for the longest recorded period last year, not appearing until early November, compared with the average of early October.
