Many streets in HCM City had been seriously flooded due to rising tide this morning, October 17, which resulted in long traffic jams.
In Huynh Tan Phat Street in District 7, flood tide started rising at 5.30am and lasted for two hours. Thousands of vehicles could not move in the flood during rush hours.
There were chaos in the massive traffic jams that run some two kilometres on the street. Traffic police arrived at 8.30am and could not do much to solve the problems.
The same situation also occured on some other streets in the city including Le Van Luong (Nha Be District), Luong Dinh Cua, Nguyen Van Huong (District 2), National Road No.50 (Binh Chanh District).
According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, the tide is forecast to rise again at 5.30pm today and may reach 1.68 metres.
The centre also forecasts that between October 11 and 20, the water level of the Cuu Long and Sai Gon rivers will rise due to the anticipated flood tide.
Cuu Long River may reach the highest water level in the year on October 18-20. Meanwhile, the southern region will see heavy rains in the days to come.
The water level of Tien River in the Tan Chau area could reach 3.3m, while the level for Hau River at Chau Doc area will top 2.8m.