A Vietnamese resident tries to get into his flooded house after Typhoon Ketsana swept through Hoi An. Typhoon Ketsana extended its destructive rampage through Southeast Asia Wednesday, blowing away whole villages in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos as the regional death toll rose to 331. (AFP/Hoang Dinh Nam)
(Post by CAAI News Media)
by Tran Thi Minh Ha Tran Thi Minh Ha – Wed Sep 30
HOI AN, Vietnam (AFP) – Typhoon Ketsana extended its trail of destruction across Southeast Asia Wednesday, killing at least 66 people in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and unleashing some of the worst floods in a decade.
Tens of thousands of people fled as landslides wiped out homes and rising waters submerged villages and ancient world heritage sites, just days after Ketsana killed 246 people in the Philippines.
Ketsana barrelled towards Laos on Wednesday after being downgraded to a tropical depression, while aid workers struggled to reach stranded survivors and get urgently needed supplies to the homeless.
In Vietnam, officials with the flood and storm control committee said at least 55 people died, including 13 in Kon Tum, a mountainous inland province, and 14 in central Quang Ngai province, where the typhoon made landfall.
Another 11 were missing, an official said.
Cambodia said 11 people died when the storm struck overnight, while there were no immediate reports of casualties from Laos. Scene: Hoi An flooding
Central Vietnam bore the brunt of the typhoon's impact, with the flood and storm control committee saying that six coastal provinces had been evacuated, involving 168,585 people. Many areas were without power.
The town of Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage site, was under three metres (10 feet) of water. The town is a major tourist draw for its centuries-old pastel-coloured buildings.
On Tuesday flooding hit parts of Danang as well as Hue, the former capital and another World Heritage site, where residents used small wooden and steel boats to move around.
"This flooding might be bigger than the historic floods in 1999," said Nguyen Su, the Communist Party chief in Hoi An.
Aid agency World Vision said in a statement more than 5,800 houses in Vietnam had collapsed in floods and landslides with 163,000 houses having lost their roofs, but this was not immediately confirmed by the government.
Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said military helicopters could be sent to join the rescue effort, adding that they would immediately evacuate households on river banks and areas likely to suffer from landslides.
State-run Vietnam News carried a front-page photograph of houses almost submerged by brown floodwaters in badly hit Kon Tum province.
In Cambodia, authorities said the homes of thousands of people had been evacuated as the storm packed winds of up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) an hour.
Nine were killed and 28 injured in central Cambodia while two died in the northeast overnight as the country was battered by the storm, officials said. The victims included a grandmother, mother and three children in one house.
"At least nine people were crushed last night when their houses fell down," said Chea Cheat, chief of the Red Cross office in central Kampong Thom province, adding that at least 92 houses in his province were destroyed.
"I have never seen such a strong wind in my life," said Pang Phot, a police officer in the Sandann district.
"Many wooden houses were immediately blown away and many others collapsed to the ground. It was raining heavily and people could not flee their homes because the wind hit immediately," he told AFP by telephone.
In Laos, five or six villages had reportedly been flooded in Savannakhet province and aid workers were making their way there by car, World Vision said.
"We have the capability to urgently ready 500 aid packs if our assessment teams find these are needed," World Vision aid worker Vatthanathavone Inthirath said.
The Philippines is still struggling to cope with the aftermath of floods caused by Ketsana that have affected more than two million people, with the US military set to send troops and equipment there to help.
Ketsana, at the time a tropical storm, dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on Manila and surrounding areas on Saturday, submerging 80 percent of the nation's capital.
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