5-month-old baby cries for milk amid devastating floods in northern Vietnam

She only had time to grab the baby and an almost-finished formula can, said Nong Thi Loan, the baby’s aunt.

“The water rose so fast. We fled to a neighbor’s attic with two other families. The water was nearly up to the roof tiles,” she recalled.

In the cramped attic space, five children, including a two-year-old and Trang’s infant, endured cold, darkness, and hunger.

Wet clothes clung to shivering bodies as frightened cries filled the night.

The baby, no longer breastfed due to a loss of milk supply after birth, began to cry relentlessly from hunger.

With little formula left, Trang tried to stretch out meager portions of baby food.

On the morning of Wednesday, desperate and without options, Loan posted a photo of the children waving to a passing relief boat from the roof, along with a plea: “The five-month-old baby has run out of formula.”

The baby’s father, working overseas, saw the message and rushed to buy the formula and send it home, but the urgency on the ground outpaced delivery.

One resident living outside the flood-hit area, moved by the plea, bought a can of powdered milk and passed it to Nguyen Thi Phuong, a local helping distribute relief supplies from the embankment.

Phuong wrapped the can in plastic, scribbled ‘For Loan’s family’ on the bag, and handed it to a man aboard a relief boat on Thursday.

An hour later, the boat returned, and the milk failed to be handed to Loan.

“We couldn’t get in,” the man said, shaking his head.

Phuong tried again and again. For the rest of the afternoon, she pleaded with various rescue teams, but the answer remained the same: the waters were too high, the route too dangerous.

As night fell, the baby went without.

Trang fed what little food she had left, hoping it would be enough to keep her child calm through the cold and hunger.

On Friday afternoon, water levels began to recede.

Loan was finally able to guide Trang and her baby home, but the powdered milk had still not reached them.

The house, like most in the village, was stripped by the flood, while roads were still buried under mud and debris, making a trip to buy formula nearly impossible.

“Now that we’re home, I’ll go ask the neighbors for milk,” Loan said.

“All our belongings are gone. Only one family managed to save a gas stove, so we’ll try to borrow it to boil water for the baby’s milk.”

Flood devastation in Lang Son

The historic flooding caused by storm Matmo, the 11th storm to form in the East Vietnam Sea this year, has wreaked havoc across Lang Son Province.

As of Thursday, 5,100 houses had collapsed or been submerged, while more than 1,000 hectares of crops had been destroyed.

Over 100 irrigation and infrastructure projects were damaged.

Total losses were estimated at more than VND1,050 billion (US$40 million).

Local authorities deployed over 5,600 personnel from the military, police, and civil defense forces, along with 31 rescue boats, 45 vehicles, and more than 6,000 life vests in response to the historic flooding.

Over 16,000 residents were evacuated, and five metric tons of food and water were distributed to flood-hit areas.