Vietnam widens flood victim search as toll rises
By Ho Binh MinhHANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam widened the search on Thursday for victims of flash floods spawned by Typhoon Damrey, which Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said, had caused "extremely serious losses".
With 54 people dead or missing in the north, a letter from Khai read out on state television asked the Fatherland Front, the Communist Party's mass organisation, to appeal to the nation for help.
So far, soldiers had recovered the bodies of 25 of the 51 people swept away in Yen Bai province, 180 km (110 miles) northwest of Hanoi, a provincial official told Reuters.
"The search is still under way, so we have no final toll yet," he said.
State television said 32 bodies had been found while one person was reported killed by a landslide in the neighbouring province of Lao Cai and two more died in Hoa Binh.
The television showed pictures of flattened houses, submerged schools and rescuers searching for bodies along rivers.
Seven died in similar torrents in Thailand while China and the Philippines each reported 16 deaths.
The deaths took the known toll to at least 79 in Damrey's rampage across the main Philippine island of Luzon, the southern Chinese island of Hainan -- where the economic damage was estimated at $1.2 billion -- Vietnam, Laos and northern Thailand.
In some areas of Vietnam hit by Damrey's 130-kph (80-mph) winds and 5-metre (16-foot) sea surges on Tuesday, thousands people were being evacuated for the second time as rivers swell and breached sea dykes still posed danger.
About 330,000 people were evacuated in advance of the arrival of Damrey -- Khmer for elephant.
The areas likely to face floods were in Ninh Binh, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces, the government said.
It has urged workers to speed up dyke repairs and pumping out water to help farmers finish harvesting their rice in a region which is Vietnam's second-most important producer of the staple food after the Mekong Delta in the south.
The government has yet to come up with an estimate of the overall damage, but power supplies and telecommunications were hit and thousands of homes swamped.
The typhoon did not hit the Central Highlands coffee belt further to the south and had no impact on crude oil output as Vietnam's offshore rigs are well to the south.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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