Millions in SE Asia battle floods, death toll passes 200

HANOI

Millions of people across Southeast Asia struggled yesterday with flooded homes, power cuts and wrecked infrastructure after Typhoon Yagi swept through the region, as the death toll passed 200.

In worst-hit Vietnam, the fatalities rose to 197, with nine confirmed dead in northern Thailand, where one district is suffering its worst floods in 80 years.

Yagi brought a colossal deluge of rain that has inundated a swathe of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering deadly landslides and widespread river flooding.

One farmer on the edge of Hanoi told AFP his entire 1,800 square meter peach blossom plantation was submerged, destroying all 400 of his trees.

"It will be so hard for me to recover from this loss, I think I will lose up to $40,000 this season," said the farmer, who gave his name only as Tu.

"I really don't know what to do now, I'm just waiting for the water to recede."

The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said the typhoon had damaged more than 140,000 homes across 26 provinces in Vietnam.

The high waters have devastated more than 250,000 hectares of crops and huge numbers of livestock, Vietnam's Agriculture Ministry said, with farmland around Hanoi hit hard.

Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes, while others are struggling with power cuts.

In the deadliest single incident, a landslide in Lao Cai province annihilated an entire village of 37 houses, killing at least 42 people with 53 still unaccounted for.

Myanmar's junta government has set up around 50 camps, anticipating that some 70,000 people could be affected by the floods, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, director of the social welfare, relief and resettlement ministry told AFP.

No casualty numbers or details have been given, but flooding in Myanmar is most severe around the junta's sprawling low-lying capital Naypyidaw.

The Global New Light of Myanmar, the state-run newspaper, said train services on the main line between Yangon and Mandalay were suspended because some sections were flooded.

In Thailand, the death toll has risen to nine, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said, including six killed in landslides in Chiang Mai province.

All flights have been suspended to the airport in Chiang Rai, some 145 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Chiang Mai, aviation authorities said.

Further north, Mae Sai district on the border with Myanmar is suffering its worst floods in 80 years, Suttipong Juljarern, a senior interior ministry official said in a statement.

While the military is sending boats, helicopters and other transport to help relief efforts, Buddhist temples, along with hotels and resorts, have opened their doors to accommodate almost 1,000 people flooded out of their homes.

Heavy monsoon rains lash Southeast Asia every year, but human-made climate change is causing more intense weather patterns that can make destructive floods more likely.

Climate change is causing typhoons to form closer to the coast, intensify faster and stay longer over land, according to a study published in July.