A heavy downpour that lasted nearly two hours left many streets in Saigon flooded. The intersection of Pham Van Dong and To Ngoc Van streets in Thu Duc District was heavily submerged. 

On both sides of Pham Van Dong Street, the water was higher than motorbike wheels. Motorbike drivers struggled to get through the flooded road.

Pham Van Dong Street is part of the important ring road connecting Tan Son Nhat Airport at the beginning of Truong Son Street and Linh Xuan Intersection in Thu Duc District. It connects the city center with satellite urban areas and neighboring provinces such as Binh Duong and Dong Nai.

A woman’s motorbike topples over. "I was walking my motorbike when I was hit by waves created by passing cars, knocking the bike down. It has been a long time since this road was so badly flooded," said the woman named Han.

Many drivers stopped in the middle of the road after their motorbike engines died.

"The street was sunk... prolonged rains always cause heavy flooding," said Bay, a xe om driver.

Traffic congestion at the intersection of Pham Van Dong and To Ngoc Van streets during rush hours.

A group of men help to carry a passersby’s motorbike over the one-meter-high median strip to escape the traffic jam and find another way.

Many bus drivers couldn’t get to bus stops, forcing passengers to get out of the bus and step right into the crowded traffic. Some stood on the median strip to wait to cross the road.

Around 7 p.m. when the flood waters started receding, traffic in the area hadn’t improved much.

A tropical depression formed off the coast of the Philippines Monday morning and quickly strengthened into Tropical Storm Danas, around 195 kilometers east of Luzon Island, with wind speeds of 65 kilometers per hour, according to the National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

The tropical storm is moving north northwest at the same speed of 20 kilometers per hour.

Due to effects of the tropical storm and extreme southwest monsoon, weather experts say that localities from Binh Thuan in the south central region to Kien Giang in the Mekong Delta and southern provinces will be battered by heavy rains and strong winds in the coming days.