Central Vietnam flooding death toll rises to 88

19 Oct 20 VNExpress Source  At least 88 people have died and around 53,000 families have been evacuated as of Monday morning in the flooding and landslides in central Vietnam.

For nearly two weeks the region has been suffering from heavy rains, floods and landslides triggered by a meeting of a cold spell from the north and the intertropical convergence zone.

The central and Central Highlands regions have been devastated with 12 national highways and over 17.4 km of local roads being damaged, most severely in Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Tri and Quang Nam provinces, the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention said.

In Ha Tinh Province, hundreds of houses have been flooded and infrastructure has been severely damaged since Friday. In Can Loc District, authorities found on Sunday afternoon the body of Tran Van Doan, 36, who had been swept away by floodwaters in Thien Loc Commune on Friday.

The 86 dead include many landslide victims - two workers buried at a hydropower plant in Thua Thien-Hue on Monday last week, and 13 others on a rescue team dispatched to find the hydropower plant workers who were hit by a different landslide on Tuesday.

Another landslide in Quang Tri buried 22 people on Sunday morning. As of Monday morning 17 have been confirmed dead while the five others remained missing.

As of Sunday afternoon water levels in several rivers in Quang Binh, Quang Tri and other areas were very high.

Heavy rains continued to fall on Sunday, with localities from Ha Tinh to Quang Tri recording rainfall of up to 200 mm between 1 a.m. and 1 p.m. Some places in Quang Binh got 230 mm. Rainfall of 180 mm a day is considered heavy.

More heavy rains are expected until Wednesday, meteorologists have warned.

Natural disasters, mostly floods and landslides triggered by storms, killed 132 people and injured 207 last year.

Source: https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/central-vietnam-flooding-death-toll-rises-to-88-4178651.html