Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is learning to live with floods

Vietnam, Oct.2: It is the flood Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City has learned to expect.

Forecasters warned on Sept. 27 that high tides could combine with heavy rain to increase the risk of flooding in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable cities. As heavy rain combined with the tide on the evening of Sept. 30, the Saigon river and smaller waterways spilled onto the roads of Vietnam’s commercial capital.

Life went on. Floodwater lapped at diners’ feet as they ate their food at roadside shops. Street vendors sat under plastic raincoats beside their wares, while customers in ponchos rode up, bought what they needed and headed back into the water.