In extreme rainfall, two people die in Cambodia, five in Vietnam, as the situation is likely to worsen due to an incoming tropical depression.
Elderly residents and young children clung to inflatable tires as soldiers and policemen in Cambodia’s western Battambang province, which is expected to deteriorate on Sunday, used rope cables to get them to safety above rising floods.
Hundreds of families in three Cambodian provinces – Pursat, Battambang and Pailin – were forced to evacuate amid extreme rainfall, heralding the arrival of a tropical depression across the Mekong region.
“A two-year-old child and a 57-year-old man drowned in the flood,” Seak Vichet, a spokesman for the Cambodian National Committee for Disaster Management, told AFP late Saturday.
The authorities do not yet have a clear picture of the extent of the damage or the people affected, but they expect the situation to deteriorate.
In the last few days, almost a meter of rain has fallen in central Vietnam.
Five people died and eight were still missing when the flood flooded more than 33,000 homes and forced more than 26,000 people to evacuate, the official disaster control agency said.
The national road connecting North Vietnam with the South was flooded while airlines canceled some domestic flights, local media reports.
The streets also turned into rivers and flooded land in Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima province as residents scrambled to place sandbags and move their belongings to a higher level.
Provincial governor Vichien Chantaranothai said Pak Chong district is the hardest hit, with 8,000 households and 12,000 affected. About 200 houses were flooded.
The floods also affected the Vietnamese old town of Hoi An after heavy rains in the Mekong region [Vietnam News Agency via AFP]The authorities distributed food parcels and asked people to evacuate to communal shelters.
“The water is three meters deep in some places,” he told reporters on Saturday.
Khao Yai National Park was closed this weekend due to heavy rainfall and landslides.
In Laos, rising floods have damaged villages and rice fields along the Xepon and Xebanghieng Rivers in Savannakhet Province, with more rain on the way.
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