Floods, landslides kill 5, leave 3 missing in Vietnam
This file photo shows rescuers clear ruins after a landslide in Vietnam's northern Lai Chau province, on June 27, 2018. Photo Xinhua
- Xinhua
- September 6, 2019 9:29 AM
HANOI -- Floods and landslides, sparked by heavy rain in Vietnam over the past few days, have killed five people, and left three others missing.
As of Thursday afternoon, the floods and landslides had claimed three human lives in central Ha Tinh province, one in central Quang Binh province and one in northern Lao Cai province, the country's National Committee for Disaster Response and Search and Rescue said on Friday.
Of the three people listed as missing by Thursday afternoon, two are in Lao Cai province and one in Quang Binh province.
A recent tropical depression has resulted in heavy rain in central provinces from Nghe An to Quang Tri, causing partial flooding in many localities, according to the committee.
Between January and August, natural disasters, mainly typhoons, flash floods, whirlwinds and landslides in Vietnam left 75 people dead or missing, injured 77 others, destroyed 685 houses, damaged over 19,000 other houses and 36,800 hectares of rice and other crops, causing economic losses of 2,200 billion Vietnamese dong (95.6 million U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office.
Vietnam is one of the countries most affected by natural disasters and climate change, according to the United Nations Development Program. It faces six or seven typhoons every year on average.
