Prime Minister requests urgent flood relief

The armed forces help hundreds of local households in Binh Chau commune, Binh Son district, Quang Ngai province to move to safe areas

The PM urged the leaders of provinces directly hit by the storm to maximise their efforts to search for and rescue the missing people.

He also requested that the local authorities and ministries support disaster victims by providing accommodation, medical and food aid, guiding people to take measures to prevent post-flood outbreaks of pandemics, as well as repairing damaged houses and restoring the power network, while ensuring the safety of dams and reservoirs.

He ordered them to mobilise all forces and means necessary to restore traffic along key roads and railways, especially the National Railway 1 and the North-South Railway.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung visited several localities in Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces to inspect the damage caused by the typhoon and direct relief efforts.

Typhoon Damrey, the 12th major storm to hit Vietnam this year, made landfall on the morning of November 4 with winds of up to 135km per hour. The hardest hit regions include the south central provinces of Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen and Binh Dinh, the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong, and the central provinces of Quang Nam, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue and Da Nang city.

The storm had killed 29 people and left 29 others unaccounted for as of 1:00 pm on November 5, according to the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

The Standing Board of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee decided to allocate VND3 billion (US$132,000) to the hardest hit regions.

The Vietnam Red Cross Society has released emergency aid, including money and essential goods valued at nearly VND1.1 billion (US$48,257) to help the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Dak Lak.