The death toll from major flooding in Vietnam has risen to 90, with 12 more people missing, the environment ministry said on Sunday after days of heavy rain and landslides.
Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October and popular holiday destinations have been hit by several rounds of flooding.
Rainfall has exceeded 1,900mm (74.8in) in some parts of central Vietnam over the past week. The region is a major coffee production belt and home to popular beaches, but it is also prone to storms and floods.
More than 60 of the deaths since 16 November were recorded in mountainous central Dak Lak province, where tens of thousands of homes were flooded, the ministry said in a statement.
Last week, rescuers using boats in central Gia Lai and Dak Lak provinces pried open windows and broke through roofs to assist residents stranded by high water, according to state media, with the army, police and other security forces mobilised to relocate and evacuate people to safe areas.
Rescuers brought food and water to flooded hospitals in the coastal city of Quy Nhon in Binh Dinh province, state-run Thanh Nien newspaper said, after doctors and patients at one facility survived on instant noodles and water for three days.
Water levels in the Ba River in Dak Lak province surpassed a 1993 record in two places early on Thursday, while the Cai River in Khanh Hoa province also surged to a new high, the weather bureau said.
More than 235,000 houses had been flooded and nearly 80,000 hectares of crops damaged, Vietnam’s disaster agency said earlier.
The government estimates the flooding has so far cost the economy around 8.98tn dong ($341m).
Between January and October, extreme weather has left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and caused more than $2bn in damage, according to the national statistics office.
The south-east Asian nation is prone to heavy rain between June and September, but scientific evidence has identified a pattern of human-driven climate change making extreme weather more frequent and destructive.
By AFP
