Flash Floods, Landslides Kill 33 in Vietnam
Date: 29-Nov-04
Country: VIETNAM
Torrential rains hit Vietnam's central region this week and floods submerged more than 10,000 houses and railway tracks and brought traffic to a stand still.
"We are trying to evacuate people out of the danger zone, land slides are the biggest threat at the moment," said an official at the disaster management department from the coastal province of Quang Ngai.
She said a landslide late on Saturday in Tay Tra district swept away a family of six people. Only one of them survived.
"The rains have waned in most part but we are still expecting milder rains in the coming days," said a weather forecaster in Quang Tri province, 600 km (375 miles) south of the capital Hanoi.
Weather forecasters reported only mild, occasional rains in the country's coffee belt region Central Highlands.
Vietnam is the world's largest producer of robusta coffee but no damage was reported in the coffee growing region.
Coffee traders based in Daklak, the Southeast Asian country's top coffee growing province, said the mild while caused some delay to the beans-drying process, had not affected the coffee harvest in the area.
Typhoon Muifa, downgraded to a tropical storm, had shifted from Vietnam into the Gulf of Thailand by Thursday.
The Southeast Asian country is normally hit by seven to eight tropical storms each year which trigger flash floods in the central region. In October and November last year nearly 100 people were killed in floods.
(Additional reporting by Ho Binh Minh)
