About that flooding you've been hearing about in Vietnam

I get messages from people all around the world that hear through various international news sources that the central areas of Vietnam, of which where I live is a part, are getting massive flooding.

I live here and really don't hear a great deal about it but that is probably because I live in a city where they have spent a ton of money on making sure that this cannot happen here.

src

I can't speak for the entirety of the nations but here in Da Nang, there hasn't been any flooding other that a few streets having an accumulation of a bit of water during heavy rains and this is something that happens annually.

I think that the news is doing their usual thing in making this out to be more widespread than it is. Please know that I am not downplaying the severity of this in other places in the country, but often Da Nang, since it is a really large city, gets its name thrown in there for dramatic effect rather than it actually being the case.

As far as I know there is no damage here although the river here is quite brown and higher than it normally would be but that is extremely temporary when you consider that the river I am referring to connects to the ocean on both sides quite near to the city center so if that floods, well the whole world would be flooding, wouldn't it?

src

I have some friends who live in nearby (about 22 km away ) Hoi An and they have informed me that the river there has flooded a lot of the historic downtown area which is primarily a tourist attraction. But here is the thing: That area is prone to flooding every single year and the businesses that are near the river on a normal non-flood-warning day are aware of the fact that this could always happen. I tend to not have much sympathy when people build things in a floodplain. You did that knowing damn well that this could and does happen.

The devastation to rural areas should of course be tended to and sympathized with, but as far as the areas that the news likes to highlight, such as Da Nang, this simply isn't true. Other than various streets accumulating 6 inches of water or so, there isn't flooding here. That little bit of accumulation of water is something that happens on a regular basis and the houses are build higher up specifically because of this.

I get frantic messages from family and friends making sure I am ok and I chuckle a little bit when I see them. I'm not mean to these people when they contact me because they do it only out of genuine concern for me, but they are misinformed by an either obvious press or a devious one that throws the name of a well-known city into the mix so they can get more clicks.

Da Nang has seen zero flooding and probably only experience light damages that are brought on by poor construction practices rather than any sort of water rising sort of thing.

I don't like that the media does this because I relate it to the boy who cried wolf. If you do this often enough, people aren't going to react properly when there is a genuine emergency.

The heavy rains are thankfully behind us for the time being and the cleanup has begun all over the country. In the meantime people can relax about being concerned about me. If my apartment 25 meters off the ground floods, it's the end of the world.