Top News

More than two weeks later he says he is still haunted by images of submerged houses and the desperate cries for help he heard in the middle of that day.

He says he saw a steady stream of Facebook posts about people in peril including a family trapped in a collapsing home.

“Her voice was panicked.”

He went to the local military headquarters to ask how he could join the rescue efforts.

He was told to call the emergency number, 122, but with the power out and phone lines unstable, his calls could not get through.

Yousuph returned to the hotel and felt restless and unsettled. His mind was filled with the cries of marooned elderly people and frightened children.

By 11 p.m. on Nov. 19, with rain still lashing the city, Yousuph set out on foot despite his friends’ objections. He walked nearly three kilometers to the Lotte Mart area in Tay Nha Trang Ward, a temporary shelter for flood survivors, navigating roads a meter deep in darkness.

With no local contacts and limited language ability, he relied on a translator tool to ask locals how he could help.

“I am a good swimmer but have never been trained in rescue,” he told them.

What he did have was robust health, determination and a willingness to act when people needed help.

Yousuph said a woman gave him food and another handed him a life jacket as he watched official rescue teams pull children, the elderly and exhausted families from waist-deep water.

He then joined a rescue team and began transporting food and water by small raft.

At around midnight his team advanced into a heavily flooded neighborhood, but conditions worsened and another team returned with the news that the water had risen too high to reach some stranded families.

“I felt like a failure,” Yousuph says.

He went back to his hotel after midnight but was unable to sleep.

By 6 a.m. he was back at the relief point. This time he joined a volunteer group coordinated by Nguyen Van Thien, former director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Khanh Hoa Province.

The group moved northern of Nha Trang toward the Cai River, reaching isolated areas. With many roads still impassable, rescuers relied on boats and small rafts to deliver essential supplies.

Yousuph saw entire streets submerged, furniture floating in the water swept away and families marooned for days without food or medicines.

He helped deliver boxes of noodles, bottled water, rice, and medicines, and helped transport equipment to restore power at Yersin Nha Trang General Hospital.

He says: “Seeing the red eyes and bewildered faces of people who had lost everything broke my heart. I just wanted to hug everyone and tell them they were not alone.”

The historic floods in mid-November caused widespread damage across Khanh Hoa Province, completely destroying more than 100 houses and causing losses estimated at over VND4.1 trillion (US$155.5 million).

Images of Yousuph helping through the night were recorded by locals and shared widely on social media. Many netizens called him a “hero”.

“I am not a hero, just an ordinary person with a loving heart, brave and a little crazy,” he says, thanking the rescue teams and volunteers he worked alongside — many of whom he does not even know by name.

“They are the real heroes.”