I wrote earlier this week about the typhoon and accompanying floods that hit Viet Nam recently and the damage that has been left behind, and just can’t get it out of my head. I’ve been checking my news updates to see what updates; if any, are coming out about what the situation is like now that the storm has passed. What I have found is upsetting.

The northern and central provinces that were hit the worst by Typhoon Lekima (Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ninh Binh) had already endured a few days of rain before the storm even started to flood the area. Now, although the typhoon has subsided, Viet Nam is facing flash floods and areas that continue to be flooded, with the standing water having nowhere to escape to. All reports agree that this is the area’s worst flooding and related damages that Viet Nam has seen in forty five years.

Although hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese were evacuated prior to the storm, the death count is now over eighty and approximately a dozen people are still reported as missing (reports vary on the number of those still missing.) Despite the physical damages and losses; such as the thousands of homes that were completely destroyed and the more than one hundred thousand that were damaged; a palpable fear exists in the possibility of a health epidemic. Drinking wells have been contaminated, food is scarce and the standing water makes a perfect breeding ground for disease carrying mosquitoes.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is manning the large relief effort and has appealed for an emergency three million dollars to aid those affected by the storm and floods. Their appeal also aims to help those who were affected by flooding that occurred this past July in some of the same areas. There are many people who have been displaced twice; in July and currently. It is estimated that ten million Vietnamese people have been affected and there are close to 200,000 people needing immediate aid in the worst hit provinces. Viet Nam’s Defense Ministry, the US Embassy, the Viet Nam Fatherland Front and many Vietnamese residents have all donated to help those affected by the typhoon.

Resources:
Viet Nam News
ABC News
MSNBC

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