Durian's Vietnam toll now 70, with 23 missing
HANOI - The final toll of tropical storm Durian in Vietnam could be close to 100, with at least 70 people killed and another 23 missing, officials have said.
Four days after the storm, officials said Thursday they still hoped those missing could be found alive.
"Many of them are fishermen, missing in waters close to shore. We expect they would turn up, like some others have done over the past two days," said Nguyen Ngoc Loc, from the committee on flood and storm control of Ba Ria Vung Tau province.
In various parts of the country, rescue workers and local residents were clearing the mess of broken power poles, fallen trees and collapsed buildings.
Ba Ria Vung Tau southern province was the worst hit, with 50 deaths and 13 missing.
More than 210,000 houses in the country's south were damaged by the storm, which also sank more than 800 moored fishing boats, said the national committee on flood and storm control in its last official report.
The storm left more than 1,300 people dead or missing in the Philippines before weakening into a tropical depression in the Gulf of Thailand, after its hit on Vietnam.
Agence France Presse - December 7, 2006.
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