Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Oct 13 (IANS) At least 54 people have died and another 39 are missing in floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in several provinces of Vietnam, the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said on Friday.
The floods also left 31 people injured in the provinces of Thai Binh, Hoa Binh, Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh, Son La and Yen Bai, Efe news agency cited the disaster prevention agency as saying.
Hardest-hit was the Hoa Binh province, where a landslide buried 18 homes, leaving 17 people dead and 15 missing.
Search and rescue work was ongoing in the affected provinces. The floodgates of some of the dams will be opened to prevent them from overflowing.
According to the government, 17,000 households were evacuated in the last few days to protect them from the devastating effects of the floods, which swept away at least 189 houses, partially flooded over 30,000 and damaged more than 8,000 hectares (19,768 acres) of cultivated fields.
Central and northern Vietnam experience several typhoons and tropical storms every year. Earlier in August, Typhoon Doksuri killed eight people in the central part of the country.
According to government statistics, tropical storms and floods killed 264 people in 2016 and caused losses worth $1.75 billion.
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