Since late October, south-central Vietnam has been hit by heavy rains, causing frequent flooding in popular tourist border towns and causing economic damage worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
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At least 90 people have died in Vietnam over the past week due to continuous heavy rains, floods and landslides, officials said Sunday.
Many people are still trapped on rooftops and mountain roads. Since late October, south-central Vietnam has been hit by heavy rains, causing frequent floods in popular tourist border towns and causing millions of dollars in economic damage.
Vast areas of the coastal city of Nha Trang were submerged, while deadly landslides hit the highlands around the popular tourist hub of Da Lat. Mach Van Si, a 61-year-old farmer in Dak Lak province, said he and his wife were trapped on their rooftops for two nights due to the floods.
More than 60 of the deaths registered since November 16 are in Dak Lak province, where tens of thousands of homes have been submerged, according to the environment ministry. Although the water in the Tuy Ho market area has receded, 40-year-old vendor Vo Hu Du said most of the goods she sells are wet or covered in mud.
For years, vendors have considered sheltering in a 5cm (2in) high place to avoid flooding, but this time even that measure was ineffective when the water reached more than a metre (3.3ft).
Nguyen Van Thoi, a 60-year-old ceramic vendor, said the damaged items were impossible to remove from the streets between market stalls. In the past week alone, more than 80,000 hectares of rice and other crops have been destroyed in five provinces, including Dak Lak, and about 3.2 million cattle and chickens have died or been swept away.
The government has deployed helicopters to deliver relief to flood-affected communities. Tens of thousands of workers have been deployed to distribute clothes, water purification tablets, instant noodles and other essential supplies, according to the state-run Tuoi Tre News. Many sections of national highways are still blocked, and some railway services are suspended.
The Ministry of Environment estimates that the floods have caused economic losses in the five provinces worth about $343 million. According to the National Statistics Office, 279 people have died or gone missing from natural disasters between January and October this year, and damage has exceeded $2 billion. The Southeast Asian country typically experiences heavy rainfall from June to September, but scientists are warning that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and devastating due to human-caused climate change.
