Vietnam braces for new tropical storm as flood toll rises to 49

Nov 5, 2007, 11:46 GMT

Hanoi - Flood-ravaged central Vietnam was bracing for Tropical Storm Peipah, forecast to make landfall this week, even as the country copes with floods that have killed at least 49 people in two weeks, officials said Monday.

By Monday morning, the floods had cut off a main north-south railway in central Binh Dinh province and more than 100,000 houses were flooded, officials said.

With wind speeds of 117 kilometres per hour, Peipah entered the South China Sea Monday morning and was forecast to hit the coast Thursday or Friday, the national weather forecast bureau said.

'We have informed all boats about the storm and ordered them ashore to avoid any human loss and damages,' said Van Phu Chinh with the Flood and Storm Department in the central region.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry sent diplomatic notes Sunday to China, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia to ask for shelter for Vietnamese boats and rescue and help if necessary, according to the National Flood and Storm Department.

The coast guards and authorities of 19 coastal provinces have so far informed 14,663 boats with nearly 92,400 sailors of the storm and ordered them to go ashore or find shelter immediately, the department said.

Binh Dinh province has evacuated at least 48,000 people and Phu Yen 10,000 people to higher ground, the department said.

Floods triggered by heavy rains and a tropical depression have killed at least 49 people and left six others missing in central Vietnam since mid-October.

The dead included 11 victims in Thua Thien-Hue province, eight each in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai and seven in Phu Yen province.

'Flash floods have also frozen the north-south railway service after washing away a 9-metre railway section in Binh Dinh province last night,' Chinh said, adding that nearly 100,000 houses have also been inundated.

Floods and storms have killed at least 230 people in Vietnam since the beginning of this year, including about 90 people killed in Typhoon Lekima and the floods it triggered in early October.