43 die and thousands hungry as Fierce Floods batter Vietnam
Pastor Dale Morgan
43 die and thousands hungry as Fierce Floods batter Vietnam*
Reuters
Thursday, August 9, 2007; 2:13 AM
HANOI (Reuters) - Rescue officials and soldiers were rushing food to
central Vietnam on Thursday, where floods have killed at least 43 people
and thousands needed urgent aid, the government and state-run television
said.
"Thousands of people are facing hunger and need food aid in the two
provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh," the Vietnam Television (VTV)
station said in a news bulletin.
But VTV said rescue efforts had been hampered by serious damage to
roads, with many sections washed away, making it tough to deliver aid.
The station showed footage of a man, water up to his chin, receiving
packs of instant noodles in the hardest-hit province of Ha Tinh, where
at least 15 people have been killed after floods caused by up to 600 mm
(24 inches) of rain.
The army has been using high-speed boats to take food to a limited
number of flood victims in Ha Tinh, while about 60,000 people have been
displaced as floods swept away or damaged their homes, the government
said in its disaster report.
Floods killed three people in the neighboring province of Quang Binh and
affected 200,000, of whom at least 7,500 had been evacuated to higher
ground.
All north-south trains were cancelled on Thursday as many sections of
track had been damaged in Quang Binh, railway officials said.
However, waters were receding in other flood-hit central provinces,
leaving dirt, garbage and the carcasses of dead livestock in water
supply sources, officials said.
Further south, flash floods have killed at least 20 people in the
Central Highlands coffee belt and nine are missing.
The region's coffee crop was not at risk and the rains helped green
coffee cherries develop before the harvesting starts in late October,
traders said.
Tropical storms and typhoons often strike Vietnam from August to
October. Last year, 10 storms hit the country and about 500 people were
killed by floods and landslides, the government said.