Tue 20 Aug
Wet Nam
Vietnam Floods

HANOI - Vietnam heaved a sigh of relief Tuesday after tropical storm Vongfong bypassed its flood-hit northern regions, allowing disaster relief teams to survey the damage from a week of deadly weather.

The storm, which brought chaos and torrential rain to southern China when it hit late Monday, weakened and turned northeast overnight sparing Vietnam its onslaught. Flash floods in the mountainous north, mainly inhabited by ethnic minority hilltribes, have claimed at least 27 lives over the past week, sweeping away houses, bridges and roads, and triggering landslides.

Since heavy rains first lashed the north at the end of July at least 37 people have died. In the capital, water levels on the swollen Red River, which broke the 12-metre (39-feet) mark on Sunday as a result of the upstream flooding, were slowly dropping.

A third reservoir gate at the Hoa Binh hydro-electric plant was closed on Monday to reduce water pressure on the lower reaches of the Red River, which has submerged 14,000 houses in Hanoi's Hoam Kiem district. Many of those forced to evacuate their houses or retreat to their second floors were stoic in response to the worst floods to hit the capital in six years.

I have been living here for more than 30 years. We are very familiar with this. The last floods like this were in 1996 and they come in a regular circle. We listen to the weather forecasts and we take adequate preparations.
(Nguyen Van Quy, a 68-year-old war veteran)

Meanwhile, in the southern Mekong Delta region, residents continued preparations for the annual life-threatening flooding season, which forecasters have warned could be exacerbated by El Nino. In 2000, Vietnam's heavily populated "bread basket" was hit by the worst floods in nearly two decades, killing around 400 people. Some 300 people also died last year.

The water levels are one centimetre higher than the same date last year. All towns in the region are fine at the moment but there has been flooding in rural areas but most crops have already been harvested.
(Simon Eccleshall of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.)

Officials in the Central Highlands, where heavy rain over the weekend broke a two-month drought, also took advantage of fine weather Tuesday to mop up the damage that resulted in thousands of residents being evacuated.