QUẢNG BÌNH — The flooding triggered by the Doksuri storm that swept through the central region of Việt Nam 10 days ago continued to isolate a community in a remote area of Quảng Bình Province.

According to Trần Xuân Tư, head of Ón Village in the province’s mountainous Minh Hóa District, 600 residents of the village have been isolated after Doksuri hit the province.

The village is situated in a valley, and the rainwater has submerged the village’s entrance road, which is some 3.5m under the water now.

Tư said the flooding began nine days ago, and it is expected to continue in the next five days. The locals are using boats to travel across the village, he added.

The only food stock available in the village is the four tonnes of rice supplied by a nearby border guard unit before the storm arrived.

Military forces have travelled to the village in boats to help the locals harvest rice during the flooding. Đoàn Ngọc Lâm, the district’s party secretary, has pledged close monitoring of the village situation and promised to supply saplings to the locals to help them recover their plantation after the floodwater recedes.

In the adjacent Quảng Trị Province, the rise in water levels in the swollen Đắkrông Stream prevented 44 primary school students from attending class.

Nguyễn Thị Vui, teacher at a sub-unit of Tà Rụt Primary School, said some 44 of the 77 students lived on the opposite bank of the stream.

Vui said these students could not reach the school when the stream’s water level was high. When the water level receded slightly, they had to take off their clothes and wade across to keep them dry at school.

Some others were taken to the school by their parents, who had to wade across the stream. The school is located in a mountainous area, which has a complicated topography; thus it is divided into sub-units that are separated from each other.

Hồ Văn Nhiếp, chairman of Tà Rụt Commune, said a bridge construction project had been planned, but no actual work had been done. "The students face the threat of being swept away if there is a sudden rise in the water level of the stream," he said. — VNS