reader Posted October 27, 2020 Posted October 27, 2020 From Vietnam News HÀ TĨNH — Now the waters have started to recede in flood-hit Cẩm Duệ Commune in central province of Hà Tĩnh’s Cẩm Xuyên District, local residents have set up a collective clean-up group. Memories of the historic floods will soon fade but one story that will remain in the community is that of the brave actions of Lê Văn Thành and three other young men. Residents have hailed the young men as heroes because together they saved more than 300 people from drowning. It was 5pm on October 18 and Thành was fishing near his house when he noticed the water was rising rapidly, he recalled. He rushed home to move his family to higher ground as water rushed through the commune submerging all 12 villages. The voices of people calling for each other and screaming caused unprecedented chaos, he said. After making sure his wife and children were safe, Thành decided to phone his younger brother Lê Văn Công and his friends Đậu Văn Hoàng and Phạm Văn Đồng to ask them to help rescue other villagers. Within minutes Công, Hoàng and Đồng were at his house and they jumped in a boat to set out for some of the houses where the water had reached up to the windows. Thanh rowed the boat towards houses that had water up to the windows using a lamp to search in the darkness. “Save me, let me get in the boat!" shouted 53-year-old Phạm Viết Phương from Trung Thành Village. "We saw Phương and a neighbour standing in front of a house. The water was up to his chest," said Thành. “When they got in the boat, they were shivering with cold,” Thành said. Seeing two elderly in the house next door, Thanh’s group also managed to help them. The group went back and forth for four hours, paddling in the surging floodwaters. By 11pm they had rescued 60 people. Continues at https://vietnamnews.vn/society/803897/young-men-save-hundreds-from-floods-in-ha-tinh-province.html splinter1949 and vinapu 1 1 Quote
