Villagers use duck-herding boats to save dozens from raging floodwaters in south-central Vietnam

As Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper correspondents arrived in flood-stricken Tuy An Dong on Sunday afternoon, local officials and residents were still recounting the remarkable bravery of two villagers, namely Tran Van Thu, 50, and Vo Dong Phuong, who used makeshift boats to pull neighbors from swift, rising waters.

Vo Van Khen, chief of the Tuy An Dong Military Command, said that without the quick action of Thu and Phuong, hundreds of people living in the low-lying basin of Diem Dien Village could have faced deadly danger.

Villagers gathered at the entrance to Diem Dien to describe how the two men battled the floodwaters to save the community.

Thu, an experienced fisherman whose home sits safely on higher ground, said he received a desperate phone call at around 4:00 am on Wednesday last week from relatives whose house was rapidly flooding following heavy rains and water discharge from hydropower dams.

Diem Dien, a village in former Phu Yen Province, lies between mountains, with many families building homes on small rises scattered across the basin.

Rushing out, Thu saw water engulfing the village from all directions.

He sprinted toward his father’s small duck-herding boat, used a dry branch as a paddle, and rowed into the torrent toward houses where survivors were crying for help.

“The current was strong, the boat moved slowly, and everyone was panicking,” he recalled.

“I shouted, ‘It’s Thu, I’m here, nobody is going to die!’ But the boat was tiny, so I took just two people at a time.”

From dawn until 2:00 pm, under heavy rain and surrounded by a vast expanse of floodwaters, Thu’s fragile boat swayed like a leaf as he ferried groups of residents to safety.

Wet and shivering survivors were taken to his home, where his wife provided dry clothes and cooked a large pot of rice to help them recover.

Khen said Thu alone saved dozens of people that day.

By the next morning, villagers flooded social media with messages thanking him for his courage.

Phuong, another Diem Dien resident, also used a duck-herding boat to rescue nearly 10 others.

Speaking modestly at his home on Sunday, he said he simply did what anyone with a boat would have done during such a terrifying flood.

“To be honest… I can’t swim,” he admitted.

“But early on November 19, the water rose fast and too many people were calling for help. I was scared as I rowed, but luckily everyone in the deep water area was saved."

Local authorities and rescue teams also pulled hundreds to safety.

A response unit consisting of the Song Cau Area 1 Defense Command and 28 militia members worked overnight, rescuing more than 200 people.

Cao Thai Nhan, vice-chairman of the Tuy An Dong People’s Committee, said the floodwaters submerged nearly every village overnight last Wednesday.

“From that night until midday November 20, we brought over 200 people to safety. After evacuating residents, we returned to deliver drinking water, food, and search for bodies swept away by the flood,” Nhan said.

The vice-chairman described one of the most heartbreaking moments, in which rescuers recovered the bodies of two siblings and their uncle, whose boat had overturned on Thursday last week.

Rescuers found the siblings tangled in bamboo roots, prompting tears from everyone present.

Shortly afterward, search teams located their uncle downstream.

Many provinces in central Vietnam have been flooded by downpours and hydropower dam water since last week, with at least 90 people dead and dozens missing.