Death toll from Vietnam floods rises to 90, several still missing

The death toll from severe floods in south and central Vietnam has risen to 90, authorities said, as the Southeast Asian country continues to assess the damage after days of relentless rain.

In a statement on Sunday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said some 63 of the deaths since November 16 were recorded in the mountainous central Dak Lak province, where tens of thousands of homes were flooded.

It said at least 12 people were still missing in the region.

While the floodwaters have begun to recede in hard-hit Dak Lak, several communities remain inundated and hundreds of families are still affected, the VnExpress news website reported.

Mach Van Si, a 61-year-old farmer in Dak Lak, said the floodwaters left him and his wife stranded on their sheet-metal rooftop for two nights.

“Our neighbourhood was completely destroyed. Nothing was left. Everything was covered in mud,” he told the AFP news agency on Sunday.

By the time they climbed a ladder to their roof, Si said he was no longer scared. “I just thought we were going to die because there was no way out,” he said.

Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October, hitting popular holiday destinations with several rounds of flooding. Whole city blocks were inundated last week in coastal Nha Trang, while deadly landslides struck highland passes around the Da Lat tourist hub.

More than 80,000 hectares (200,000 acres) of rice and other crops across Dak Lak and four other provinces were damaged in the last week, with more than 3.2 million livestock or poultry dead or washed away by floodwaters.

Authorities have used helicopters to airdrop aid to communities cut off by flooding and landslides, with the government deploying tens of thousands of personnel to deliver clothing, water purification tablets, instant noodles and other supplies to affected areas, state outlet Tuoi Tre News said.

Severe flooding in southern coastal Khanh Hoa province washed away two suspension bridges last week, leaving many households isolated, the outlet said, quoting officials.

Several locations on national highways remained blocked on Sunday due to flooding or landslides, according to the Environment Ministry, and some sections of railways were still suspended.

More than 129,000 customers remained without electricity, after more than a million were without power last week.

The Environment Ministry on Sunday estimated economic losses of $343m across five provinces due to the floods.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has ordered authorities to provide Dak Lak with 500 billion Vietnamese dollars ($19m) to help residents rebuild homes and “restore public assets”, the Vietnam News outlet reported.

He ordered a further 300 billion Vietnamese dollars ($11.4m) for Lam Dong, and 150 billion Vietnamese dollars ($5.7bn) each for Gia Lai and Khanh Hoa provinces.

He also ordered authorities to help affected residents to support and complete the repair of homes before November 20 and to build houses for people who lost their homes by the end of January, for the Lunar New Year holiday.

Natural disasters have left 279 people dead or missing in Vietnam and caused more than $2bn in damage between January and October, according to the national statistics office.