Floods and storms leave 600,000 people homeless
Floods and storms leave 600,000 people homeless
HANOI (AP): Rescue workers distributed noodles, drinking water and mosquito nets on Thursday to people stranded by unprecedented floods that have left about 600,000 people homeless in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Officials said at least 88 people have died in Cambodia and eight in Vietnam in the floods and tropical storms since July.
In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen warned merchants on Thursday against profiteering from the floods by increasing prices.
"When newspapers write stories to scare the people, it helps merchants sell goods at higher prices," he said while touring the Lvea Em district, about 40 kilometers from the capital. He said the level of Mekong river in the capital, Phnom Penh, is higher than anytime in the past 70 years.
"I have participated to stop the killing fields, the genocide of Pol Pot ... but it is impossible for me to stop the natural disaster," Hun Sen told reporters.
The water level at the meeting point of Mekong and two other rivers in Phnom Penh touched 11.12 meters (36.69 feet) on Wednesday and is expected to reach 11.20 meters on Friday. Officials say Phnom Penh could get flooded if the level reaches 11.50 meters.
Peou Samy, the secretary-general of the National Committee for Disaster Relief, said river dikes around Phnom Penh have been strengthened and the capital is not in danger.
In Vietnam, where the Mekong flows into a delta after passing through Cambodia, more than 110,000 homes have been flooded, Dang Ngoc Loi, an official in the Dong Thap province, said.
He said more than 30 rescue teams are distributing food, noodles, drinking water, clothes and mosquito nets to more than 4,000 families.
State television showed thousands of houses flooded in Dong Thap and Long An provinces bordering Cambodia after the mighty Mekong overflowed its banks, turning vast areas of surrounding rice fields into huge lakes.
Rescuers, including soldiers and naval personnel, used boats to pick up stranded villagers from houses built on stilts. In Geneva, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent appealed for $1.13 million in international aid to help some 600,000 people left without homes or land by the floods in the three countries.
About $904,000 would be needed to help feed and shelter people in Cambodia alone, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
It said unusually widespread monsoon floods also are affecting major rice-producing areas of central and southern Laos where at least four provinces have been badly affected and face food shortages.
Vietnamese officials said the two tributaries of the Mekong River were approaching 5.11 meters height, the devastating record level of 1961. They now stands at five meters.
Vo Dinh Vinh of the Vietnam Red Cross said his group has given out 200 million dong ($14,000) in aid for the victims of early flooding in July and another 180 million dong ($12,000) this month.
Dong Thap deputy governor Truong Ngoc Han said 780 million dong ($55,000) worth of relief supplies donated by local residents and neighboring provinces have been distributed.
Seasonal flooding hit southern Vietnam early this year, engulfing the country's rice bowl since July. But only a tiny fraction of rice crops were destroyed -- less than 2 percent of the 985,000 hectares planted -- because of early harvests.
The country's long coastline is vulnerable to annual bouts of monsoons and floods. More than 700 people were killed in two major back-to-back floods that hit the central region late last year.