BY FREEMAN MAKOPA
At least 28 people died , nine are missing and 80 000 others were left homeless after Northern Vietnam was struck by a massive Tropical storm Haiyan last Friday.
Many lives and homes were lost across 5 provinces according to the National Flood and storm control agency, flood waters are said to have risen above previous peak recorded in 1999 in the Quang Ngai province.
In a similar event earlier in the week at least 13 people died and 81 were injured when a tropical Storm Haiyan made a landfall in North Vietnam after inflicting havoc in the Philippines and there has been disruption to the coffee harvest that has been drying in Vietnam’s central highland provinces.
Vietnam is the world’s top coffee producer , accounting for around 17% of the world’s output.Inspite of this flood waters have started to retrocede in some areas , allowing residents to return and begin digging out their homes .
Buhi Thi Thanh Chuyen, a woman in Binh Din said she had to rush home to try and help her mother, who was trapped in her house.
“All I heard on the phone from my mother was ‘help me, daughter’ before the connection was cut off” she said.
Vo Ngoc Ngiem a Danang villager said the speed of the disaster was too much and he was not familiar with it.
“we are familiar with floods every year but this time it rose so quickly that we had no time to cope with it.
“We weren’t warned about the reservoir release. The children were at school and they were stranded there.”
Around 100 000 houses were water-logged and nearly 80 000 people have been evacuated , roads have been closed due to floods and some train services have been cancelled. Flood waters rose quickly after 15 hydro power plants opened their gates as a safety measure.
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