Continued Flooding in Vietnam

Floods frustrate Vietnamese, heavy rains continue

Nov 4, 8:43 AM (ET)
By BEN STOCKING

(AP) People struggle to go through a flooded street in Hanoi, Vietnam, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. Much of...
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HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Tran Xuan Mien spent an entire day clearing mud and debris out of his flooded house - only to watch the water rush back into his living room Tuesday.

"I'm exhausted," said Mien, 62, who lives in Vietnam's capital Hanoi. "My house is full of water again."

After a respite from the rain for much of Monday, showers resumed in northern and central Vietnam on Tuesday and the death toll from days of flooding continued to rise.

Authorities announced they had recovered 19 more bodies, bringing the total to 85.

Meanwhile, residents of the capital, where forecasters said rains were the heaviest in 35 years, attempted to clean up.

Mien hoisted his washing machine, refrigerator and two motorbikes onto piles of bricks to keep them out of the water. "I've been living here since 1984, but I've never seen rain like this," he said.

Forecasters predicted several more days of rain but said it would be lighter than the downpours that soaked the region over the weekend.

With swollen rivers and lakes across the Red River Delta, authorities remained concerned that dikes could break. Some 9,000 soldiers were deployed to make emergency repairs.

Another 6,000 people were sent to help 35,000 households affected by the floods in Hanoi, where 23 neighborhoods remained under at least a foot of water Tuesday.

(AP) People struggle to walk through a flooded street in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Nov. 3, 2008. Rains has...
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Water levels were lower in Hanoi on Tuesday, but schools remained closed and in some areas, garbage and debris floated into flooded homes.

"My house is still surrounded by water and it smells horrible," said Nguyen Thi Lien, 67. "We have limited water, just for cooking, and we haven't had a bath in four days."

Vietnamese authorities were concerned about possible outbreaks of waterborne diseases, said Nguyen Huy Nga of the Health Ministry.

"Diarrhea, cholera and typhoid could occur after a week of flooding, and dengue fever is also a concern," Nga said.

Flooding in central Vietnam has killed 41 people, while 44 have died in northern provinces, including 20 people in Hanoi.

Although the rains have eased in the central region, flooding continued to cut off some isolated areas.

"Roads to those villages are still under water," said Pham Viet Phu, a disaster official in the worst-hit province Nghe An. "The death toll could rise."

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Landslides, worst floods in a century kill 51 in China

12 hours ago

BEIJING (AFP) — Parts of southwestern China have been hit by their worst floods in more than a century as well as landslides that have cost 51 lives and left 43 missing, local officials and state media said Wednesday.

The landslides and mud-rock flows in Yunnan province followed at least 10 days of rain, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The downpours in neighbouring Guangxi region caused the worst floods in its capital Nanning since 1907, according to the official China Daily.

"The latest information we have shows there are 40 dead, 43 missing and 10 injured in Yunnan," a disaster relief official at its provincial civil affairs department, who refused to be named, told AFP.

"The death toll is 11 in our region, but there are no missing or injured," another official at the disaster relief office in Guangxi said.

More than 2.4 million have been affected by the rains in both areas, state media reported.

In Yunnan, the rainfall has hit 13 cities and prefectures in the centre of the province, including the capital Kunming, and sent torrents of mud and rock through villages, affecting 1.3 million people, the China Daily said.

In the northwest of the province, meanwhile, heavy storms blanketed major roads with 50 centimetres (20 inches) of snow and traffic cut off, the report said.

Over 1.1 million people in Guangxi have been now affected by floods, which have destroyed 87,000 hectares (215,000 acres) of crops and caused 700 million yuan (100 million dollars) in direct economic losses, Xinhua said.

The floods have also cut off roads in Guangxi, damaging 68 reservoirs and 107 dams, the report said.

Rain has eased in Guangxi but more is forecast in Yunnan.

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