Nguyen Thi Khu (R) was among three people rescued by Le Nhu Thien before he became one of typhoon Mirinae’s victims.

Youth put their lives on the line to rescue flood victims

But 18-year-old Le Nhu Thien of An Ninh Tay Commune in the south-central Phu Yen Province will never be forgotten by anyone who knew him.

Thien drowned on November 2 after saving three neighbors from violent floods triggered by typhoon Mirinae.

Sixty-year-old Nguyen Thi Khu was distraught. “I would have been swept away by the floods if it were not for Thien. But it is meaningless that he had to die for this old useless woman to live on,” she cried.

Thien’s brother, Le Nhu Nghiep, said it was around 2 a.m. on November 2 when residents of An Ninh Tay Commune’s Xuan Phu Hamlet were being evacuated because the flood waters were rising rapidly.

“The flood had risen to more than two meters above the ground when Thien found a father and son caught in the violent current,” he said.

After managing to save the two, Le Ho and his 10-year-old son Le Anh Thuong, Thien plunged back into the waters to save Khu who was about to drown, said Nghiep.

However, Thien only managed to push the woman ashore before the waters claimed him.

“We arrived on a rescue boat and took him ashore but it was too late,” said Nguyen Chi Cuong of the communal youth union branch.

Thien’s teacher Nguyen Xuan Hoan remembered him as a hardworking student who was always on good terms with other students.

His classmate Phan Dinh Thi said he had a good school record and was an enthusiastic student. He was always willing to help others, Thi recalled.

For the ultimate act of compassion in putting others’ lives for his own, the youth union in Phu Yen Province said it had suggested that the government grant him the Brave Youth medal posthumously.

Thien is survived by his parents and a brother.

Selfless

When typhoon Ketsana hit the central region on September 29, Truong Thanh Thuan and Pham Van Hoa of Binh An Commune in Quang Ngai Province’s Binh Son District had no second thoughts when plunging into a violent stream to save two people being swept away.

The two were staying at an evacuation shelter at around 8:30 a.m. that day when they were informed that Le Van Tam and his wife were stuck in the floods on the other side of the Nuoc Lanh Stream and that their house had collapsed in the storm.

Tam and his wife were holding on to a tree to avoid being swept away by the floods while Thuan and Hoa began to swim across the river in a heavy downpour. The Nuoc Lanh stream, usually about 10 meters wide, had become a raging torrent more than 150 meters wide.

The two youth struggled and took about 20 minutes to cross the fast-flowing stream and take the couple to a safe place. Tam had gotten stuck with a broken leg after his house collapsed.

It was only at around 3 p.m. on the same day that the four could return to the evacuation shelter after another local, Nguyen Van Nam, tied himself to a rope connected to the bank and crossed the river to take them back.

“I didn’t think about my safety at all because Tam’s family was in danger,” Thuan said.

Source: Thanh Nien, agencies