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The death toll from weeks of flooding and landslides in central Vietnam has risen to 111, with 22 people still missing, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
“These devastating floods are some of the worst we have seen in decades,” Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, president of the Vietnam Red Cross, said in a statement Tuesday.
More than 7,200 hectares of food crops were submerged and damaged, and more than 691,000 cattle and poultry were killed or washed away by the floods, according to the Vietnam State News Agency (VNA). Sixteen national highways and 161,880 meters of local highways in four provinces were also damaged.
The country is now preparing for another attack from Tropical Storm Saudel, which is heading toward Vietnam after hitting the Philippines, causing flooding and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
October is the rainy season in Vietnam, but for weeks the country has been plagued by particularly unfavorable weather that has affected agriculture, irrigation and transportation.
At the beginning of the month, storms and a cold snap brought rain and flooding to central cities and provinces in Vietnam, according to VNA. More than 250,000 homes in six provinces have been “flooded” since mid-October, and many areas are 2-3 meters underwater, VNA reported.
Earlier in the week, rescuers found 14 bodies of 22 soldiers who were missing after a landslide engulfed a military camp, according to VNA.
The region as a whole has suffered particularly heavy rains amid the onset of a La Niña weather system, characterized by unusually cold temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.
Largest humanitarian crisis
The floods in Vietnam have left hundreds of thousands of people in urgent need of emergency shelter, clean water, food and financial support, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Red Cross disaster teams are working together with local authorities to provide relief assistance.
“Wherever we look, houses, roads and infrastructure have been submerged,” Thu said. “We are doing everything we can to provide immediate assistance to people by boat, by air and by land, including food, clean water, tarps and other essentials.”
The Central Committee of the Vietnam Homeland Front is giving 20 billion Vietnamese dong ($ 860,000) to support families affected by the floods in five central provinces, VNA reported. The International Federation has released around $ 325,000 to support the relief efforts of the Vietnam Red Cross.
According to Thu, the flood is dealing “a staggering blow to the livelihoods of millions of people who are already recovering from the hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
A double disaster was unfolding as floods “compound the hardships caused by Covid-19,” Christopher Rassi, director of the IRFC Secretary General’s Office, said in a statement Tuesday.
“These floods are the last straw and will push millions more towards the edge of poverty,” he said.
CNN’s Isaac Yee and Sandi Sidhu contributed reporting in Hong Kong. Reuters also contributed to the reports.
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