Nguyen Ngoc Suong stands beside her grilled pork noodle cart, which is submerged and damaged by the flood in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Hoa / Tuoi Tre
The downpour, which struck the city on Saturday, submerged entire rental units and left behind a trail of destruction.
Among the hardest hit was Dang Quoc Thuan, a 44-year-old disabled lottery ticket vendor who lives in a 20-square-meter boarding room with his wife, Nguyen Ngoc Suong, a street vendor selling grilled pork noodles.
"The water rose so quickly that it reached my neck," Thuan recalled.
"My wife tried to raise the fridge with bricks, but it was no use.
"Everything – the noodle cart, the fridge, and all of our belongings – was submerged and ruined."
The couple estimated that their losses amounted to at least VND1.2 million (US$46) in damaged goods and ingredients.
In addition, their essential household items like the refrigerator, rice cooker, gas stove, mattress, and pillows were all destroyed.
Just a few doors down, 53-year-old Huynh Xua, a resident of Soc Trang Province in southern Vietnam, faced a similar fate.
Xua has lived in Ho Chi Minh City for 17 years, supporting himself by working at Thu Duc Wholesale Market.
Recently sidelined by an eye condition, he has been out of work, relying on the charity of neighbors.
"Now, my room is flooded, everything's ruined. I have nothing left," he said wearily.
The rain also devastated the room of Tran Thi Kim Chi, a 34-year-old resident of Dong Thap Province, located in the Mekong Delta, who had invested her limited savings in a freezer to preserve ingredients for her small noodle business.
When the waters rushed in, she tried to elevate the freezer, but the water climbed rapidly — first to her knees, then her neck.
"People yelled at me to give up — that saving myself was more important than saving things," she said tearfully.
Huynh Xua shares that the floodwater rose to his chest, poured into his room, and submerged all of his belongings.
Nguyen Thi Binh, 56, the owner of the boarding house where these residents live, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the entire row of 15 rental rooms suffered flood damage.
Most tenants are low-income workers.
"Every year, we go through flooding three or four times," Binh said.
“I even built cement steps 30 centimeters high in front of each room, but it doesn't help."
She noted that nearly 10 motorbikes were also damaged and needed repairs.
After the construction of Provincial Road 43 and Go Dua Overpass, her property lies in a basin where runoff water accumulates rapidly during downpours.
The broader area around Thu Duc Market faced similar chaos.
The Saturday rain overwhelmed drainage systems, forcing water to gush violently from manhole covers.
Residents in Alley 789 clean up after the floodwaters receded.
The recurring sight of water gushing from sewer covers — last seen in mid-April — has sparked serious doubts about the effectiveness of the new drainage system.
A representative from the Thu Duc City Construction Investment Project Management Board explained that steep streets like Vo Van Ngan and Kha Van Can funnel large volumes of water toward low-lying areas, placing extreme pressure on the drainage infrastructure.
Meanwhile, contractors are now reinforcing sewer lids with extra supports to prevent them from bursting open.
A man wades through a heavily flooded alley in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City.
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