Rains to bring more misery to flood-hit Vietnam
HANOI - Fresh rains were expected to hit
parts of central coastal Vietnam later on Friday, compounding
despair across a region struggling to recover from two
devastating floods in one month.
Former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet said damage from the two
floods that have killed a combined 730 people was the heaviest
the country had suffered since the decade-long Vietnam War,
which ended in 1975.
``These have been the biggest losses ever in Vietnam
since...1975. The floods have been a huge natural disaster for
the central provinces,'' Kiet told Reuters Television.
Officials have put economic damage to infrastructure and
property from the floods in early November at $250 million,
while preliminary losses from the flooding this week have been
estimated at around $50 million.
Floodwaters have been receding across the region, which
stretches 650 km (400 miles) and is home to eight million
people. But a meteorologist in Hanoi said weather patterns
remained complicated and more rains were likely to hit southern
parts of the affected areas late on Friday.
Central Vietnam, the country's poorest region, does not make a
major contribution to economic output, but relief workers have
expressed growing concern about how people would support
themselves over the next three to six months.
WHOLE VILLAGES DESTROYED, WIDESPREAD DESPAIR
John Geoghegan, head of delegation for the International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in
Vietnam, said hundreds of thousands would be vulnerable over
this period because the planting of the next rice crop was in
doubt.
``Our people have been in remote areas and seen whole villages
destroyed. A lot of people are in despair,'' Geoghegan told
Reuters, adding he was worried by the prospect of fresh rains.
Of greatest concern was the situation in Quang Nam, Quang
Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces, he said, although plenty of food
and plastic sheeting was getting in.
The government was distributing rice and rice seedlings, but it
was unclear if farmers would be able to sow the current crop of
the staple on time this month.
``People are getting the basics. What we have to ensure is
that...we form a bridge between now and when their next rice
crop is due -- whether that is in three months if they get the next
crop in on time or in June next year,'' he said.
In a sign of warming ties, U.S. President Bill Clinton offered his
``deepest sympathies'' on Thursday to people hit by the floods
and said Washington was ready to offer new emergency aid.
The U.S. military in November sent transport planes to central
Vietnam laden with emergency supplies to help people stricken
by that month's flooding.
Washington and Hanoi were bitter opponents in the Vietnam
War and only normalised ties in 1995.
Vietnam regularly gets hit by storms, but central areas are prone
to floods because of widespread illegal logging along a mountain
range that lies not far inland.
Geoghegan said there was growing concern at the provincial and
national level about flood prevention in central regions.
Reuters - December 9, 1999.
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