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Evacuation speeds up as Vietnam flood death toll rises |
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September 30, 2000
HANOI, (AP) - Authorities have stepped up evacuation of flood victims in the Mekong Delta as the death toll in Vietnam rose to 159 and waters showed only slight signs of receding, officials said Friday. The National Rescue Operations Committee on Thursday delivered 20 speed boats to the five worst-hit southern provinces, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. The provinces need the speed boats to speed up evacuation of people still stranded in the badly flooded areas, an official said on customary condition of anonymity. Parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos have been devastated by floods of the Mekong river and its tributaries, affecting more than 6.5 million people, and killing nearly 400 regionwide. So far, 134 of the 159 reported fatalities in Vietnam have been children, said Do Ngoc Thien, deputy director of the Flood and Storm Control Department. On Thursday, a top official of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated that up to 20 children a day are drowning in Vietnam after falling off dikes where tens of thousands of families have taken refuge. The Red Cross is handing out lifebelts, plastic sheeting and mosquito nets to families and is trying to buy torches for distribution and set up small generators to provide lights. The UN World Food Program has promised two months worth of rice to some 40,000 of the neediest people. Other relief agencies are helping too. World Vision has provided dried noodles and 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of rice to 14,000 people in the three hardest-hit provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Long An, said David Purnell, the agency's Vietnam director. "The major donations have yet to come through," he said. "We're filling in the gaps - this interim period where people are in need. That was the main focus for us." Bui Dat Tram, director of the meteorology station in An Giang, said water levels in the upstream provinces are receding by 5 centimeters (2 inches) per day but the lower basins still remain high. With high tides currently pushing in from the South China Sea, it will be at least one month before the water completely recedes, he said. Officials said a tropical depression that hit central Vietnam earlier Friday had little impact on the Mekong's tributaries.
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