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Floods, resulting from the fall monsoons, affect the mass of land between just south of Hoi An right through Da Nang, Hue and as far as Dong Ba.

If you have the right mental attitude you can over come the effects of flooding, then comes the physical discomfort and deprivation and finally the clean-up.

Think positive, it ONLY lasts 3-4 months! That's in the bad years.

Spot your house - Hoi An

Still Hoi An has it easy compared to Da Nang.

If you have studied the lay of the land, you will have noticed it is predominantly flat. This makes for equality - seeing how water seeks a natural balance.

The worst aspect of flooding in VN is the fact that they do not have separate waste sewers for toilet sewage and street/rain water. So when the floods come most all of the sewers back up and over flow in to the streets and houses and buildings. Unfortunately 99.999% of the houses in VietNam don't have anti-back flow flaps so flood water has an ingress into most homes.

Can't find the key hole

Another feature of VN building is that electrical outlets are often at chest height. This is no accident, it means they are usually above the flood line.

Back to Hoi An. There is the 'ancient town' where most of the houses are made from wood. You will also find there are holes drilled in the floors. The holes allow the water in and stop the buildings from turning in to boats and floating away.

The wooden construction is actually very smart - given how much water trees contain naturally. The annual soaking does little damage to the structures. The streets in the Ancient Town do turn in to rivers, sweeping away the debris, motorcycles and chairs. Winds can get high with signs, roof covering (the sheet corrugated iron are the most dangerous) if not secured, flying around.

Check out the water against the road sign

The land between Hoi An and Cua Dai beech is flat and only (just) above the river water line.

During the monsoons, sea tidal surges increase the water line even as far inland as Hoi An which further adds to the difficulty of getting rid of the water.

Along the beaches of Cua Dai, at low tide, you will see there is a two-metre 'step' in the level of the stony beaches, this is caused by the wave action of the monsoons.

Preparation is essential. Extra bottled gas; plenty of batteries and flash lights; candles and matches; waders; plastic buckets you can use as Porta-Toilets when the water is around; good quality rain coats (you can buy the from marine suppliers in Da Nang. A portable generator will give you some semblance of civilisation and keep the refrigerator running (don't forget the gasoline/petrol).

You will need copious amounts of bottled water (for drinking and cooking) and visiting the Metro store in Da Nang will allow you to buy box lots of noodles and other supplies.

Old hands in the flood areas have their motorcycles modified so that the carburettor/carburetters are extremely high, along with air intakes, so don't be riding an unmodified bike in the water1

The Vietnamese have survived these annual upsets for hundreds of years, and undoubtedly you can too. And then you can wear a T-shirt saying I survived the Monsoons.

I have experienced the storms in Hoi An, Da Nang and Hue (where water routinely is over two metres in some parts of town) and Da Nang was easily the worst with the wind driven debris.

Thank you for your very comprehensive reply!  Certainly sounds like an adventure

I forgot one thing.

All your family members should wear whistles and LED flashlights on bands/straps. Make them waterproof by wrapping electrical tape around them.

And that is wear, as in around their necks. (The electricity goes out)

Don't be frayed from the fear messages. The floods in Hoi An is common and though our wet season is about 3 months it might flood once or twice...  There are plenty of houses outside of the flood zone and when it floods we get plenty of notice as the flooding is caused by high tides, lots of rain and then they let the water out of the dam...and if you rent a house that floods, your landlord would probably show up with a team of people and help scrub it as the water goes down... It is actually an exciting time, kids are off school, tourists see the sights by paddle boats and like I said much of the land is free of flooding...

We have lived here 2 year and not seen anything bad happen from the floods... We have not seen a typhoon yet but they are known to come through sometimes, the houses are made of cement so they don't blow over.. and there is a growing expat community here who are all very happy and don't let the flooding worry them, don't need to provision or make evacuation plans..

Come check it out and hear the scoop for the local community, Hoi An is a wonderful place to live....

There are a few real estate agents here and for rent signs everywhere. finding suitable and good price houses is easy in Hoi An..

If you have any more questions, I would be very happy to answer them
Cheers
Michele

Thanks, Michelle. So is it best just to ask around once in Hoi An to learn areas/houses are less prone to flooding? Sounds like anywhere along the beach or river front is badly affected but is it just a matter of looking at elevation maps apart from that? , at the risk of sounding stupid, are most of the houses double storey and people just move their furniture to the first floor in the wet season?

Hi....I am moving to Hoi An in August 2012.Could I ask your opinion on a couple of issues please?

I have been offered a small single storey two bed house on Dien Bien Phu Road..about 5 k from the beach.They want $200 a month which seems reasonable to me but I was wondering about flooding in that area?

Also do you know a quiet bar in the town?

Would appreciate yur comments..Pete H

NorthFamily wrote:

There are plenty of houses outside of the flood zone and when it floods we get plenty of notice as the flooding is caused by high tides, lots of rain and then they let the water out of the dam...and if you rent a house that floods, your landlord would probably show up with a team of people and help scrub it as the water goes down... It is actually an exciting time, kids are off school, tourists see the sights by paddle boats and like I said much of the land is free of flooding...

Michele,

Is it obvious when you look at a house if it's in the flood zone? I guess it seems like if there's been a flood in the last few years and the house was built before the flood, is it obvious that the house has been in a flood?

Also is it just as easy to find a condo on 2nd floor of a building? I'd almost prefer such a lifestyle.

Thanks!

John

johndale wrote:

Is it obvious when you look at a house if it's in the flood zone? I guess it seems like if there's been a flood in the last few years and the house was built before the flood, is it obvious that the house has been in a flood?

Also is it just as easy to find a condo on 2nd floor of a building? I'd almost prefer such a lifestyle.

Obviously you've never been to Hoi An in the wet season.

Located on the banks of a river, the land inland of the town saturates and all the flood waters flow, naturally, to the low sput, which for hundreds of hectares, is the river and the water, literally, turns the streets into small rivers.

There are highrises, inland, but they are for Vietnamese and besides living above the ground floor doesn't help much if you have no electricity or water.

Jaitch,

I have not been to Hoi An in the wet season.

It's just that if a flood like that came into the houses we have hear in the states, we'd have a ton of mold and other problems to handle that would be much more than "clean up." So the idea of such a flood from my non-experience seems like it would make the place uninhabitable.

Just trying to get an idea if such flooding makes Hoi An a place this westerner could live. I have a great sense of adventure and it's likely with a different attitude about flooding it would all be great.

Well, I might back off a bit from "great." Let's just say it would all be OK.

Anywhere north of Ly Thuong Kiet St does not flood (that is only 4 or 5 blocks north of the river)