Torrential rains leaves 6 dead, 10 missing

 

HÀ NỘI — Torrential rain and flooding across central Việt Nam have killed six people while another 10 remain missing.
According to the latest report of the Central Committee on Disaster Prevention on Thursday evening, the number of casualties in Hà Tĩnh Province climbed to three, while Quảng Bình and Thừa Thiên-Huế provinces each lost one person.
Rescuers were still looking for seven people in Quảng Bình, of whom six fell overboard when a wave hit their fishing boat. The three missing in Quảng Nam were also crew members of a sunken boat.
Flooding submerged up to 15,000 houses, with Quảng Bình suffered the heaviest as 8,000 houses were left underwater.
Authorities also evacuated more than 3,700 people to safe places for the last few days of the downpour.
The weather, however, is forecast to calm as rain is expected to ease starting Friday.
On Thursday, the Electricity Việt Nam Central Power Corporation (EVNCPC) announced it has restored power lines to 70,000 households in Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị provinces who were cut off during the downpour.
According to EVNCPC, flooding damaged 1,748 electrical substations and submerged many, causing some 107,000 outages in Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên-Huế.
Residents in Thừa Thiên-Huế managed to get their power back since Wednesday night but many in remote areas in Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị were still living without electricity.
The EVNCPC said networks in Quảng Bình’s Minh Hoá and Tuyên Hoá districts were heavily damaged while flooding and landslides continued in Hương Sơn, Hương Lập and Hương Việt communes in Quảng Trị isolated the areas and made it impossible for the engineers to approach.
The power company said it would mobilise crews to restore power as soon as possible. — VNS