U.S. Air Force flies supplies to flood-stricken Vietnam
HANOI - U.S. Air Force planes will fly emergency relief supplies this week to victims of massive flooding in Vietnam's
Mekong Delta, said a U.S. official on Tuesday.
Vietnam's Mekong River delta has been hit by the worst flooding in four decades, killing 368 people, including 264 children,
Vietnamese disaster relief officials say.
An Air Force C-130 cargo plane was to land at Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhut Airport on Wednesday with 87 cartons of
plastic sheeting, which can shelter 4,000 people, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Scott Weinhold.
A second cargo plane, along with a commercial charter plane, were due Friday with two tanks that can produce 18,000 gallons
an hour of drinking water and heavy-duty inflatable rescue boats. Both cargo planes were coming from Andersen Air Force
Base in Guam.
It will be only the second time since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 that the Air Force has sent specially tasked relief
flights to Vietnam.
More than 48,000 families in the Mekong Delta have been displaced in this season's floods. About 4 million people have lost
homes, livestock or crops. Total damage has been estimated at $247 million.
The supplies from the U.S. Agency for International Development are part of a $250,000 U.S. donation, the embassy
spokesman said.
International pledges have topped $2.7 million in response to last month's International Red Cross appeal.
Vietnam's long coastline is vulnerable to annual natural disasters. A battery of flash floods, tropical storms and the record
flooding have killed 465 people nationwide in recent months.
In neighboring Cambodia, an effort to evacuate more than 300 Cambodian villagers stranded on high ground by flooding failed
Tuesday, but they remained safe, officials said.
Military police used a Russian-made amphibious transport vehicle to try to reach the marooned villagers in Cambodia's
Kompong Speu province, about 30 miles west of Phnom Penh, but abandoned the attempt for fear the vehicle would get stuck
in the mud, said military police officer Duong Suong.
Until this past weekend, Kompong Speu had escaped the worst impact of the flooding, which has killed 277 Cambodians and
affected 2.7 million others since July. But heavy rains Saturday and Sunday swelled nearby streams and rivers, forcing many
residents to flee to high ground along National Route 4.
National Military Police Commander Sao Sokha said the stranded villagers are safe because water is receding. New efforts to
try to rescue them won't be executed until Wednesday morning, if at all, he said.
"We wanted to rescue them and take them to the national road, but some of the people do not want to go," said Sao Sokha by
telephone. "They like to stay near their houses so they can watch their property. So we think it's okay if they stay on the land
near their houses."
Associated Press - October 18, 2000.
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