Flooding Troubles

Pray for Hanoi experiencing flooding. A friend wrote the following:

This is the 4th day of flooding and it's still raining and is suppose to rain all week. My house is flooded, I don't know the current level of water in the first floor. High water mark was about 14 inches. Yesterday afternoon it was down to about 4, but it's started raining again.... The lake outside the house and the living room have just become all one body of water! In fact my lake now covers about a mile square if not more!

The high water mark was on Friday night and now regions of Hanoi are dryer. However, schools and businesses are all closed today by order of the government. One of the crucial issues is food. It's scarce and if there is any very expensive. I have been told of mini riots in markets when a lone vegetable seller managed to get in with a motorbike load.I am carrying veggies, oil and water in with me today - but not too much as I know that I'll have to carry it at least sometimes.

I want to relieve my housemates who have been in the house for 3 days. They don't want to leave the house for fear of break-ins. I think that I can watch the house for a few days and they can wade out to friends who have electricity and have a break. They sounded really tired last night. We still have running water in the house, but they use as little as possible and don't' flush as they are afraid the flood and the sewers really have become one.

Anyway.... we are inconvenienced - but so many poor people, and students have lost so much. Yesterday the death toll was at 20 which is not so bad, but it's bound to go up as disease begins to spread and people get hungrier. We have some student friends who live on our lake who have been living in rooms w/ 10 - 20 inches of water in them as they don't dare to leave their things....