Floods kill 39 people in southern Vietnam, tens of thousands evacuated
HANOI, Vietnam - including 36 children — and forced tens of thousands to flee
their homes, the government said Friday.
Water swamped 46,000 homes in three provinces in
the southern Mekong Delta, where more than 55,000
people have been evacuated, the Central Floods and
Storms Control Department said.
It said another 32,000 people still needed to be
moved to higher ground in the provinces — Dong
Thap, An Giang and Long An.
Many of the children who died were left home alone
by impoverished parents who were working or searching for food, which was
scarce due to the floods.
More than 300 temporary day-care centers have been set up and are taking
care of 6,260 children, the department said.
It said 235,000 people needed emergency food aid, but only 9,000 had received
it so far.
The floods, which began in late June, have inundated 560 kilometers (348 miles)
of rural roads and prevented 109,000 children from starting the new school year,
which began Sept. 5, the department said.
Rice production in the Mekong Delta, the country's main rice growing region,
has not been affected because farmers finished harvesting their crops before the
floods.
Bui Dat Tram, director of the Hydro Meteorology Center in An Giang province,
said the Mekong River's water is expected to rise in the coming days, with flood
waters remaining high for much of the rest of the month because high tides
would prevent drainage to the South China Sea.
Last year, the seasonal floods killed 385 people in the Mekong Delta.
The Associated Press - September 13, 2002.
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