A high tide caused many homes and restaurants to be flooded, leading to prolonged traffic jams at the Trung Luong intersection where Highway 1A meets Highway 60 in Tien Giang province in the Mekong Delta.
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Vehicles queue on Highway 60 towards Trung Luong intersection on February 11, 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam |
On Sunday around 4 p.m., many streets within a kilometer radius of the intersection were still heavily flooded due to high tide.
Some low-lying areas were flooded for up to half a meter, forcing vehicles to travel on the higher parts of the road, near the divider, to avoid the water.
The engines of many motorcycles broke down. Traffic police were present to redirect traffic, but traffic jams and disorder persisted for a prolonged period.
Many cars turned back to seek alternative routes, fearing that vehicles would stall due to floodwaters, worsening traffic jams.
A simultaneous accident on Highway 60 caused a long traffic jam for more than 10 kilometers from Trung Luong roundabout to the Rach Mieu Bridge tollbooth in Ben Tre province in the Mekong Delta. It took many cars more than an hour to cross the Rach Mieu bridge.
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Cars and motorcycles are crowded together for more than 10 kilometers at the Trung Luong intersection on February 11, 2024, due to high tide and a road accident on Highway 60 .Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam |
The high tide also flooded homes, businesses and schools along the road. Le Thi Thanh, 55, owner of a rice stall on Ap Bac Street on Highway 60, said his business was slow due to continued flooding.
“The floods began on the night of the first day of Tet [Saturday]”, she said. “And the water rose above the knee this [Sunday] afternoon. Every time a car passed, the water flooded the house, forcing shop owners along the road to desperately lift their belongings.”
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Shopkeepers along Ap Bac Street are affected by the rising tide. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam |
Vo Van Thong, director of the Tien Giang hydrometeorological station, said the northeast monsoon blew strongly at this time of year, causing the river to rise higher than usual. This year’s highest water level was just over 1.8m, still lower than last year’s maximum tide level of 1.97m in Tien Giang, it said .
“It may be that in previous years, high tide occurred in the middle of the night with fewer vehicles passing, so the impact on commerce and traffic was less and people paid less attention to it,” he said. -he declared, emphasizing that the water level would continue to rise Monday evening until early Tuesday morning before gradually decreasing.
