Vietnam's central belt has been deluged by torrential rain turning streets into canals, bursting riverbanks and inundating some of the country's most-visited historic sites.
Up to 1.7 metres (5 feet 6 inches) fell over one 24-hour period in a downpour breaking national records.
The fatalities occurred in Hue, Da Nang, Lam Dong and Quang Tri provinces, according to an update from the environment ministry's disaster management agency, which said six people remained missing.
On Sunday the toll had stood at 35.
The onslaught of extreme weather is set to continue, with Typhoon Kalmaegi forecast to make landfall in the early hours of Friday morning, said the national weather bureau.
"It's exhausting," said Tran Thi Ky from the city of Hoi An, where the UNESCO world heritage site of the ancient town was drenched in muddy waist-high water.
"We are tired of floodings, but what can we do," the 57-year-old told AFP, after her home was flooded three times in less than 10 days.
"We brought all our furniture to high ground but they are all wet anyway."
Vietnam is prone to heavy rain between June and September, but scientific evidence has identified a pattern of human-driven climate change making extreme weather more frequent and destructive.
Ten typhoons or tropical storms usually affect Vietnam, directly or offshore, in a given year, but Typhoon Kalmaegi is set to be the 13th of 2025.
The storm is currently lashing the central Philippines, where it has killed at least five people and displaced hundreds of thousands.
It could hit Vietnam's coast with winds of up to 166 kilometres (100 miles) per hour as it approaches on Thursday, the national weather bureau said.
On Tuesday, the region was reeling from the past week's extreme weather, with some remote areas still isolated by landslides that blocked roads.
State media reported approximately 15 metres of the wall at the Hue Imperial Citadel, known as the Dai Noi, had collapsed.
Nearly 80,000 houses are flooded, according to the disaster agency, while more than 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of crops have been destroyed and more than 68,000 cattle killed.
Indonesia floods kill 15
Jakarta (AFP) Nov 4, 2025 -
Flash floods in a remote area of Indonesia have killed at least 15 people and left eight more missing, the national disaster management agency said on Tuesday.
The floods, triggered by heavy rain on Saturday, hit two separate parts of Nduga regency in the eastern province of Papua Pegunungan.
After initially announcing that 23 people were missing, Abdul Muhari, spokesman for the disaster management agency, said that "15 people have been found dead."
He said that the search was ongoing for the remaining eight.
Massive landslides in the area have hampered the operation, Abdul said in an earlier update.
He had also said that those missing included 15 people who were swept away by a flash flood while attempting to cross a river, but it was not immediately clear whether this was the group that was eventually found dead.
The annual monsoon season in Indonesia, typically between November and April, often brings landslides, flash floods and water-borne diseases.
Climate change has affected storm patterns, including the length and severity of the season, leading to heavier rain, flash flooding and stronger wind gusts.
At least 18 people died in September when a flood hit Bali -- the popular holiday island's worst in a decade, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.
In January, floods and landslides in Central Java province killed at least 25 people.
Climate change, poor planning drive Vietnam flooding
Hanoi Oct 30, 2025 - Dozens of people dead, thousands evacuated and millions of dollars in damage. Vietnam is once again battling widespread flooding driven by climate change and poor infrastructure decisions, experts say.
The Southeast Asian nation's location and topography make it naturally vulnerable to frequent typhoons and some flooding, but the situation is being made worse by the heavier rains that climate change brings and rampant urbanisation.
- Stronger, wetter storms -
Vietnam is in one of the most active tropical cyclone regions on Earth and prone to heavy rains between June and September.
Ten typhoons or tropical storms usually affect Vietnam, directly or offshore, in a given year, but it has experienced 12 already in 2025.
"Climate change is already shaping Vietnam's exposure in several important ways," said Nguyen Phuong Loan, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales.
Studies suggest climate change will produce fewer but "possibly more intense tropical cyclones (typhoons)" along with heavier bursts of rain because a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.
"That means a higher chance of flash floods, especially in densely populated urban areas," said Loan.
Rising sea levels are also putting pressure on coastal communities.
- Topography, infrastructure -
With 3,200 kilometres (around 2,000 miles) of coastline and a network of 2,300 rivers, Vietnam faces a high risk of flooding.
Much of the country has little natural ability to drain quickly after heavy flooding because of its topography, hydrological experts said.
In some cases construction and environmental degradation has made matters worse, said meteorological expert Nguyen Lan Oanh.
Upstream forest destruction for hydropower projects, cementing of drainage canals and rampant urbanisation have "badly contributed to the source of flooding and increased landslides", Oanh told AFP.
"Humans need to change their perception in the way they treat nature for a safer world."
- Devastating impacts -
This week alone, floods triggered by record rainfall in central Vietnam have killed at least 10 people and inundated more than 100,000 homes.
In the coastal city of Hue, up to 1.7 metres of rain fell in just 24 hours.
The flooding follows several rounds of inundations in the capital Hanoi and elsewhere, linked to storm systems or heavy rain fronts.
Natural disasters -- mostly storms, floods and landslides -- left 187 people dead or missing in Vietnam in the first nine months of this year.
Hundreds more were killed or left missing last year, many of them in Typhoon Yagi, the strongest storm to hit Vietnam in decades.
Yagi caused an estimated $1.6 billion in economic losses.
- Responses -
Vietnam "is making great efforts at early warning", said Ralf Toumi, director of the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London.
In recent flood incidents, the government has issued evacuation orders and assisted residents moving to higher ground.
But "the infrastructure also needs to be continuously improved as the country is getting richer", Toumi added.
Dykes, sea barriers and drainage systems in major deltas on the Red River and the Mekong have been reinforced, upgraded or newly built.
And after deadly landslides and flash floods triggered by Yagi, part of an entire village in northern Lao Cai province was relocated to safer, higher ground.
But often "the focus is on disaster infrastructure whereas it should also be on not creating disaster risk", said Brad Jessup, an environmental expert at the University of Melbourne.
"Without attending to risk reduction, the needs for protection infrastructure keeps on increasing. It is a spiral."
Climate adaptation is expensive, and wealthy countries have consistently failed to keep promises on climate funding for developing nations like Vietnam.
Rich countries pledged in 2021 to double their adaptation financing by 2025, but instead, the figure has fallen, the United Nations said this week.
Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
| Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters |
