Floods, landslides exact heavy toll

Floods, landslides exact heavy toll

Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai (2nd, R) pays his respects at the home of Huynh Thi Kim Yen, a 29-year-old teacher who lost her life in a Quang Ngai Province landslide A 15-month-old baby smiled when local authorities came to his home to provide financial aid.

The body of his mother, 29-year-old teacher Huynh Thi Kim Yen, was retrieved on Friday in the wake of a landslide a day earlier. Yen and her husband Tran Hoang Nhu, together with their friend Le Na, also a local school teacher in the central province of Quang Ngai, were trapped under the landslide Thursday as they returned home from school. Nhu and Na were found and rushed to a local hospital in critical condition on the same day. Yen’s body was found a day later. Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai paid a visit to Yen’s Sunday to send his condolences to her family. Quang Ngai authorities have reported that around 2,200 locals living in Tay Tra, Son Tay, Tra Bong, Ba To, Minh Long, and Son Ha districts are still living in areas susceptible to landslides and flashfloods. The residents are in need of evacuation, said local officials. Speaking with the Quang Ngai provincial administration Sunday, Deputy PM Hai instructed local agencies to reconnect all transport routes severed by landslides. He also asked the province to provide accommodation and food for flood victims. The Quang Ngai government reported that recent flooding has killed at least four people, demolished hundreds of houses and isolated several districts. Material losses have been estimated at around VND67 billion. Hai also visited Binh Dinh Province Sunday where he was told by local authorities that floods have left at least nine people dead or missing, with property losses valued at VND110 billion. Hai instructed local authorities to keep a close watch on the local dyke systems. Floods in the central region, which began cutting a swathe through provinces from Quang Ngai to Binh Dinh on November 16, have left at least 25 people dead or missing alongside material losses amounting to hundreds of billions of dong, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported. Heavy rains began lashing the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak Tuesday and have already taken a toll on local crops and transport infrastructure, local authorities reported. Downpours showed no sign of a letup Sunday as the Serepok River continued to rise. Opportunist loggers Many loggers have capitalized on the post-flood chaos and high-waters by transporting illegally-logged wood via boat. Many loggers have been seen hauling wood along the Vu Gia River in Quang Nam Province’s Dai Loc District, most of which was likely to have been cut down illegally, according to the Dai Loc District Forest Warden’s Agency. The alleged loggers have been using their boats to ferry buffalos, which they used to help fell trees, to nearby forests, the office said. Though the loggers appeared to be operating in broad daylight, their activities expanded at night, said Le Tan Can, deputy chief of the warden’s agency. He admitted the situation was very difficult to control due to a shortage of both manpower and equipment. Source: TN, Agencies