105 Killed in Latest Floods to Hit Vietnam

Widespread flood waters began to recede across central coastal Vietnam today but huge numbers of luckless residents face tough times ahead, officials and relief workers said.

The death toll from the latest floods to hit blighted central Vietnam was still at 105, with 22 listed as missing.

State media reported the toll was likely to rise, although relief workers said it would not come close to the nearly 600 people who died in similar floods last month because residents had been more prepared for the current disaster.

Relief workers said 750,000 people were homeless while 1 million people needed emergency assistance in the wake of the floods, which swept across eight provinces of central Vietnam following days of torrential rain.

The weather outlook was not expected to turn bad over the next few days, although some light rains were still falling.

Soldiers have been mobilized to help distribute food and other supplies across the coastal region, which stretches for 400 miles and is home to 8 million people.

John Geoghegan, head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Vietnam, expressed concern over how people barely getting back on their feet from last month’s floods would cope.

Hopes were grim that the next rice crop could be planted in central Vietnam on time this month because paddy fields had again been inundated, Geoghegan told Reuters.

“We are worried about the vulnerability of people. Without some assistance coming back in a few months’ time, this kind of [immediate] help is like putting a Band-Aid on a really bad cut,” Geoghegan said.

Widespread Damage May Be Felt for Years

Infrastructure would take years to be repaired, while the government was looking at debt relief for farmers, he added.

The Vietnam News newspaper said the latest floods could leave more damage than the November disaster because the area covered by water was bigger.

Last month’s floods caused damage of $250 million and set the region’s development back by years.

Nevertheless, officials said the floods would have minimal impact on Vietnam’s overall economic growth because the region was not a major contributor to industrial output or exports.

“The damage has been chiefly to human lives and houses, as well as infrastructure such as communications, electricity and irrigation works,” Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in a newspaper interview.

No precise damage estimates from the latest floods have been issued.

Officials said that soldiers late on Monday had managed to sand-bag a key dam in Quang Nam province that had threatened to burst its banks, while parts of the national north-south Highway One were reopened on Tuesday.

Vietnam, home to 79 million people, is a narrow coastal nation that regularly gets hit by bad weather.

Central Vietnam is especially prone to flooding because of widespread illegal logging along a mountain range that lies not far inland.