Three died, thousands evacuated in Vietnam

HANOI (AFP) — Serious flooding in central Vietnam has killed three people and forced more than 10,000 residents to evacuate their homes, disaster officials said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month large swathes of the country’s north were devastated by flooding in the wake of Typhoon “Yagi,” which left nearly 300 people dead and caused $1.6 billion worth of damage.

But as “Yagi” floodwaters began to recede in the north, central Vietnam was last week struck by another severe storm which brought heavy rain and sent river levels dangerously high.

Disaster management officials in Thanh Hoa province said Tuesday that over the past three days more than 11,700 people had left their homes — many of them partially submerged — for higher ground.

In neighboring Nghe An province, three people were reported dead after being swept away in flashfloods.

Since Saturday, around 320 houses have been damaged while more than 6,300 hectares of crops were destroyed, the ministry of agriculture said, adding that at least 40 school buildings in the area were flooded or damaged.

In northern Thailand, flash floods triggered by heavy rain have killed two people in Lampang province and affected 1,500 households, the kingdom’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said on Tuesday.