Severe floods had left 21 dead

and missing in the central

provinces as of Oct. 17 while a

tropical storm is forecast to hit

East Sea on Oct. 18.

Most of the victims were swept

away in flash floods while

travelling in Nghe An, Ha Tinh,

Quang Binh and Thua Thien-Hue

provinces, reported local

authorities.

" The swift current and an

immense sea of water on large

area make it difficult for us to

search for the missing," said

Nguyen Hong Ha, a local from

Nghe An province's Nghi Trung

commune.

On Oct. 17, Prime Minister

Nguyen Tan Dung asked the

Finance Ministry to immediately

provide 100 million VND each to

Quang Binh and Ha Tinh

provinces following Deputy PM

Hoang Trung Hai's decision.

The PM also requested that the

National Reserves Department

allocate 1,000 tonnes of rice to

each of the two provinces for

timely restoration of the

aftermaths of the floods.

A working group of the National

Steering Committee for Flood and

Storm Control on Oct. 16 made a

tour of Ha Tinh province to

provide guidance on coping with

the natural disasters.

Vietnam News Agency

correspondents in the central

provinces reported that waters

continued to rise in these

localities.

The three consecutive days of

torrential rains that ended on

Oct. 16 also flooded thousands

houses in these provinces for the

second time since the beginning

of October, said the Flood and

Storm Control Steering

Committee.

In Quang Binh alone, 10,000

families were evacuated to safe

places and some 40,000 houses

remained flooded, nearly half of

which were 1.5-2m deep in

water, said the provincial

People's Committee Chairman

Nguyen Huu Hoai.

Heavy rains and flooding also

blocked road and railway

transport, isolating more than

100,000 houses in Ha Tinh

province after its Mo and Khe

Mung hydro-power dams were

broken.

" Rain has resulted in landslides

leaving 25 areas under

thousands of cubic metres of soil

and rocks and blocking transport

on National Highway 8A," said

Nguyen Truong Tuong, director

of 474 Road Management and

Repair Company.

National Highway 1A was also

1m deep in water and many

provincial roads remained many

metres under water, preventing

rescue team from reaching

flooded house.

The north-south railway was

suspended between Nghe An's

Vinh station and Quang Binh's

Dong Hoi station after many

parts of the rails were washed

away in the floods, said Nguyen

Huu Tuyen, head of the Vietnam

Railway's Transport Business

Department.

He couldn't say when the section

could reopen but workers would

start fixing the rails as soon as

water subsided.

Three north-south trains were

cancelled on Oct. 17 while some

3,000 passengers who were

stranded at those two stations

on Oct. 16 continued their

journey by bus.

Meanwhile, the National Centre

for Hydro-Meteorological

Forecasting says storm Megi, the

incoming tropical that formed in

the Philippines, is travelling west

at 20kph and is predicted to be

300km east of Hoang Sa (Paracel)

archipelago by the morning of

Oct. 20.

The previous floods in early

October killed 66 people in the

centre of Vietnam./.