Floods batter central Vietnam, killing 105
HANOI - Soldiers mobilised across central
coastal Vietnam on Monday to help victims of heavy floods that
have killed 105 people and left one million in need of emergency
assistance.
Officials said the army was delivering food by helicopters where
possible, although poor weather had hampered relief efforts in
the worst-hit parts of a region barely getting back on its feet
from devastating floods last month.
Relief workers said while more rains were forecast, it appeared
that the impact might not be as severe as floods that left a trail of
destruction across central Vietnam in early November and killed
592 people.
MILLIONS STILL VULNERABLE
Nevertheless, millions of people were still vulnerable and
hundreds of thousands had already been evacuated to higher
ground. An unknown number had been left homeless.
``This is a double whammy for central Vietnam. Communities
were only just getting their lives back to normal,'' said John
Geoghegan, head of delegation for the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Vietnam.
An official at the country's Disaster Management Unit (DMU)
said one million people needed assistance, such as emergency
food supplies and plastic sheeting.
He said the government was especially concerned about a key
dam in Quang Nam province that had threatened to burst its
banks. Soldiers were sand-bagging the dam, while thousands of
people downstream had been moved to higher ground.
Meteorologists said more rain over the next two days would lash
the affected region, which stretches 650 km (400 miles) from
Quang Tri province to Khanh Hoa province and is home to
more than eight million people.
Officials in the worst-hit provinces of Quang Nam and Quang
Ngai said there had been no let-up in rains on Monday.
Vietnam Television said in a late evening broadcast that the
official toll stood at 105, with 22 people listed as missing.
Rescue workers have been unable to contact 1,000 families who
live in isolated areas hit by floods and landslides, the Vietnam
News daily said earlier on Monday.
ROADS AND RAIL LINES CUT
Parts of the national north-south Highway One and the main rail
line through the affected provinces had also been cut.
Relief workers and officials said rice fields only recently
re-planted had again been damaged, while temporary shelters
erected following the last floods had been washed away.
Geoghegan told Reuters that the Red Cross would extend an
international appeal launched last month to raise funds to help
buy supplies and other emergency items.
Officials said light rains were also hitting nearby coffee
plantations in the central highlands, disrupting harvesting of the
current crop and the drying of beans.
Last month's flooding in central Vietnam caused damage of
$250 million and set the region's development back years.
The area is prone to flooding because of widespread illegal
logging along a steep mountain range that lies not far inland.
Central Vietnam does not make a big contribution to economic
growth but boasts popular tourist spots from the former imperial
capital Hue to China Beach in Danang, a favoured playground of
American GIs during the Vietnam War.
Vietnam, home to 79 million people, is a long narrow coastal
nation that regularly gets hit by floods and typhoons.
Reuters - December 06, 1999.
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