Over 100 Dead as Vietnam is Hit With Most Severe Flood in Decades

October 22, 2020

Vietnam, which is currently reeling from what has been described as the country’s most severe floods in decades, is bracing for more bad weather in the days to come.

Humanitarian crisis: Weeks of flooding and landslides have resulted in the loss of livestock, food crops and the lives of 111 people, with 22 individuals still missing as of Wednesday, CNN reports.

Vietnam has been facing storms and a cold snap that resulted in heavy rains since the beginning of October.
By mid-October, over 250,000 households in six provinces have been affected by floods, with many areas submerged 6 or 10 feet.
With thousands of homes underwater, tens of thousands of people have become displaced.
An estimated 691,000 cattle and poultry have been lost in floodwater and over 7,200 hectares of food crops have been damaged.
The flood also destroyed 16 national highways and over a hundred miles of local roads in four provinces.

Plea for help: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) noted that hundreds of thousands of people in Vietnam are now in dire need of emergency shelter, safe drinking water, food and income support.

To support the Vietnam Red Cross relief activities, the IFRC has released around $325,000.
Local authorities and Red Cross disaster teams are providing relief assistance to those affected.
Vietnam’s Red Cross Society president Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu pointed out that there is much work to be done.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee is donating 20 billion Vietnamese dong ($860,000) to provide assistance to affected areas.
Thu noted that the weather crisis is “a staggering blow to the livelihoods of millions of people already reeling from hardships caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Bracing for more: As the region suffers from heavy rainfall amid the onset of a La Niña weather system, Vietnam is preparing to face tropical storm Saudel which recently caused flooding in the Philippines, Reuters reports (via Inquirer).

On Wednesday, Vietnam began evacuating thousands of people from their homes.
Vietnam’s weather agency chief Mai Van Khiem said in a statement: “The damage will be immense if we are not well prepared as the projected impact area has already suffered from floods and landslides.”

Feature Image via VOANews

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