Recent floods in Vietnam, hit for several weeks by torrential rains, have caused at least 90 deaths in one week, according to an official report published on Sunday, November 23. More than 60 of the 90 people killed since November 16 were recorded in the mountainous province of Dak Lak (center), where waters have flooded tens of thousands of homes, the environment ministry said. The previous report, dating from Saturday, mentioned 55 victims. Twelve people are also missing.
Mach Van si, a 61-year-old farmer from Dak Lak, found himself stranded on the roof of his house with his wife for two nights, surrounded by floodwaters. “Our neighborhood was completely destroyed. There’s nothing left. Everything was covered in mud.”he testified to Agence-France Presse (AFP). “I thought we were going to die, because there was no way out”.
129,000 users deprived of electricity
The south and center of the Southeast Asian country experience incessant rainfall since the end of Octoberleading to repeated flooding and leaving tourist destinations as well as historical sites underwater. Entire neighborhoods were submerged in the southern coastal city of Nha Trang last week. And landslides hit the heights around Da Lat (south), a popular tourist destination.
On Sunday, several sections of highways remain impassable, according to the environment ministry, adding that the same is true for railways in places. More than 129,000 users remain without electricity due to outages that affected up to a million people last week. The ministry estimated the economic losses caused by the floods in five provinces at around 300 million euros.
Distribution of food to disaster victims
More than 80,000 hectares of rice fields and other crops were damaged, while more than 3.2 million poultry and livestock were killed. According to state media Your Three Newsthe authorities deployed helicopters to drop supplies to isolated populations. On the ground, tens of thousands of agents are providing clothing, water purification tablets, instant noodles and other supplies to the victims. In the coastal province of Khanh Hoa (south), two suspension bridges were destroyed by floods last week, cutting off many homes from the world, the official media reported.
Vietnam usually experiences heavy rains between the months of June and September, with scientists explaining that human-induced global warming is making extreme weather events more frequent, deadlier and more destructive. For each additional degree, the atmosphere can contain 7% more humidity, with heavier water fallout, experts warn.
Between January and October, natural disasters left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and more than $2 billion (1.7 billion euros) in damage, according to official figures. At the beginning of October, the north of the country had already been hit by significant flooding following the passage of typhoons Bualoi and Matmo, both deadly. It was then Kalmaegi’s turn to sweep the territory at the beginning of November, again causing victims.
At the end of October, the city of Hue (center), a popular tourist destination for its former imperial city, broke the national rainfall record which dated from 1999, recording up to 1.7 meters of rain in 24 hours.
