Heavy rain in northern and central Vietnam triggered floods and landslides that killed 46 people and 33 people were missing in the worst such disaster in years, the search-and-rescue committee said on Thursday (Oct 12).
Vietnam often suffers destructive storms and floods due to its long coastline. More than 200 people were killed in storms last year.
“In the past 10 years, we haven’t suffered from such
severe and intense floods,” state-run Vietnam Television quoted Agriculture Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong as saying.
A typhoon tore a destructive path across central Vietnam just last month, flooding and damaging homes and knocking out power lines.
The latest floods hit Vietnam on Monday.
“Our entire village has had sleepless nights… it’s impossible to fight against this water, it’s the strongest in years,” a resident in northwestern Hoa Binh province was quoted by VTV as saying.
Vietnam’s Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said authorities were discharging water from dams to control water levels.
Some 317 homes have collapsed, while more than 34,000 other houses were submerged or have been damaged.
Earlier reports said more than 8,000 hectares of rice had been damaged and around 40,000 animals were killed or washed away.
Hoa Binh province in the north-west declared a state of emergency and opened eight gates to discharge water at Hoa Binh dam, Vietnam’s largest hydroelectric dam, the first time it has done so in years, VTV reported.
