N.Korea: Typhoon kills 100
Pastor Dale Morgan
*N.Korea: Typhoon kills 100*
From: Agence France-Presse
From correspondents in Geneva
July 19, 2006
AT least 100 people are believed dead or missing and 9000 are homeless
after typhoon rains caused severe flooding and landslides in North
Korea, wiping out whole villages, the International Red Cross said.
"In some remote areas, whole villages have been swept away and essential
public services, such as healthcare clinics, have been destroyed," said
Jaap Timmer, the head of North Korean operations at the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
"There has also been widespread damage to roads and bridges, which has
left many people displaced or stranded," he said.
The typhoon, which first struck on July 14, has totally or partially
destroyed over 11,500 houses, the Red Cross said.
It has also destroyed out vast swathes of farmland - a major blow,
because the secretive communist nation's people have long had to rely on
international food handouts after previous failed harvests.