Losses caused by Katsana are mounting - by the morning of October 1, 92 people were reported dead, 19 missing and 199 injured in the central region.

Material losses are also huge, with thousands of houses and public works either damaged or entirely collapsed. Thousands of hectares of fields are flooded.

Many areas in Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien – Hue and Quang Nam are still out of power. The entire Kon Tum province has no power.

Meanwhile as many as 26 sections of the Ho Chi Minh Highway are damaged, with damaged areas up to 150m across and holes as deep as 10m.

Elsewhere, the National Highway 19C has 98 sections suffering from landslides, totaling almost 20kms. The National 49A also has 25 landslide points with 16 for National Highway 46. Traffic on these highways is at a standstill.

Downpours in central and central highland provinces have reduced so flooded local rivers are slowly subsiding.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung has traveled to the central region to inspect and instruct relief activities. The help local people, the authorities of central provinces have asked for the government’s assistance of 24,100 tonnes of rice and nearly 700 billion dong.

PV