SANAMXAY, Laos, July 29 (Xinhua) -- The flood water came at about 9 p.m. at night on July 23 to South Thahin Village, Sanamxay district of southern Lao province of Attapeu, when 35-year-old Chanxay Phaivongthe was about to sleep.
Suddenly he found water was pouring into his house, "I had no time to pick anything up and I just held my kids and ran," Chanxay told Xinhua in the Sanamxay District Middle School, which is now a makeshift shelter for victims after a dam collapse triggered flash flood.
The under-construction Saddle Dam D of the Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower project, which consists of two main dams and five saddle dams, burst late Monday, unleashing some 5 billion cubic meters of water from the mountain to villages of Sanamxay district downstream the Xe Pian River.
Six villages were entirely submerged by the muddy flood.
Woods were floated and pushed by the flood to knock down villagers' houses, Chanxay recalled, adding that he and his family managed to climb to the rooftop of a house.
"It was a mess. People just gripped anything they could. Some houses were totally submerged and some were even flooded away," he said.
The water was very muddy. Chanxay and his four family members found a small boat but it was overturned by the flood, so they had to stay on a nearby tree.
"I shouted and burst into tears. The next morning, authorities, on their boats, came to rescue us," Chanxay said, adding that they had been stranded for seven to eight hours.
He told Xinhua he was lucky that everyone in his family survived, and they got clothes and food in the middle school-turned shelter.
"My house is gone, and also crops and motorcycle. My only property left is my underpants," Chanxay said miserably.
Phetsamai Phuangmala, a 43-year-old female villager from Thahin Village, one of the most severely damaged villages in the disaster, also lost everything.
"My house is gone and my buffaloes are dead. It is great that everyone in my family survived but I lost my properties," Phetsamai said, though she still has a piece of paddy field in Donbok village, now also as a temporary shelter for displaced villagers as it lies on a relatively high land.
Khamlieng Outhakaisone, deputy director general of the General Staff Department (GSD) of the Lao People's Army and commander of the rescue operation, told a press conference Saturday night that the Donbok village sheltered some 1,086 affected villagers from other villages.
Sok, a 29-year-old Thahin villager, has been staying in Donbok village for five days. She said she was stranded on a rooftop for the whole night with her family and were rescued by authorities the next morning.
The survivor, who received a bag of rice from rescue teams on Friday, said she had rice and eggs as relief operation continued.
Some 700 villagers from Thauan village took shelter in Donbok. One of their village leaders, 43-year-old Sengsawat Sengdayen, told Xinhua they had no idea that such a great amount of water poured into their village.
"All of our villagers survived but our properties are all gone," he said. "We want enough food now so we can have enough strength to make our living again by ourselves."
As the flood subsided on Saturday, some villagers returned to their houses, if they were still there, to clean the muds and check if there was anything left for them.
A male villager from Kokkong, a village not far from the administrative center of Sanamxay district, went back to his house on Saturday afternoon.
"Everything was washed away but I got these," he told Xinhua, referring to a pair of trousers and a pair of slippers, all very muddy.
He and his friend also took some food to his friend's dog, which according to them, had been stranded there for a few days.
After collecting their remaining properties, they went back to the shelter they stayed, along with their dog on the muddy road to town.
Until late Saturday, the total number of villagers living in shelters reached 7,324, with 3,721 living in three shelters in Sanamxay district and 1,407 in shelters set up in Pathoumphone district and Paksong district of Champasak Province. Some 600 people were sheltered in Tammayoth village, 1,086 in Donbok village, and 500 in Pindong village, according to Khamlieng, the commander of the rescue work.