The picturesque Son River usually snakes through the green mountains in central Quang Binh province’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. But, during the past weeks its waters have boiled with fury as heavy rains caused two consecutive floods.

With its water level at two metres, it flooded more than 2,300 houses and the whole Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a famous tourist destination in Vietnam.

“The flood has seriously damaged the heritage area and hurt local inhabitants,” said the park’s vice director Nguyen Van Huyen.

“Everything is covered in mud. Everything looks like the outcome after a bombing in a war,” Huyen said.

Meanwhile, locally-owned Truong Thinh group’s Thien Duong cave tourism area in the province, which was put into operation one month ago, has also been damaged by the floods, which broke a 10 kilometre road connecting Ho Chi Minh Road and the cave.

“The tourism area’s waiting room system was thrown into an abyss. All the electricity systems in the cave have been flooded. The cave’s 1km wooden bridge is nearly out of use,” said a group representative.

These two tourism areas are among many other properties and businesses seriously damaged by the floods in Quang Binh. The province is also just one of the six central provinces of Vietnam seriously hit by the floods.

Quang Binh provincial People’s Committee reported that financial damage in the province was over VND2.4 trillion ($126 million), while 53 people were killed and many roads and public infrastructure damaged.

Particularly, the province’s information and liaison equipment and power system were soiled. The committee reported that the telecommunication centres of Le Thuy, Quang Ninh, Bo Trach, Quang Trach, Tuyen Hoa and Minh Hoa districts were drowned out.

The committee also reported that a series of fibre cable systems were broken, such as a system across the Quang Ninh district’s Long Dai river, the Tan Ly-Kim Bang-Tan Hoa system and the Thuong Hoa-Military Post 585 system in Minh Hoa district, the Phong Nha-Ha Loi, Trooc-Lam Trach, Nam Gianh-Lien Trach, Trooc-Phuc Trach systems in Bo Trach district and the Quang Trach-Canh Hoa system in Quang Trach district.

Source: vir.com.vn