A Vietnamese resident tries to get into his flooded house after Typhoon Ketsana swept through Hoi An.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urged “rapid” rescue and relief efforts for central Vietnam after Typhoon Ketsana smashed into the coast Tuesday, leaving at least 74 people dead.

At least 12 people were missing as of 6 p.m. local time, according to a statement by the National Committee for Flood and Storm Control. The central province of Quang Ngai reported the highest death toll at 22, according to the statement. The storm left 246 people dead in the Philippines.

Rains have eased in the central region and water levels are receding, though flooding is still “very high,” the committee said. Soldiers, rescue and aid workers as well as helicopters have been mobilized to help people in isolated areas, the government said in a statement on its website Wednesday.

Environmental workers and residents are shifting garbage, collapsed trees and debris from streets, according to the statement.

Almost 360,000 people in the region were evacuated before the storm hit. Ketsana, which brought winds of 167 kilometers (103 miles) per hour, swept away or damaged about 177,000 houses and destroyed more than 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of rice fields, rubber, and other crops.

Oil refinery

Aqua-farms, roads, dykes, schools and health clinics were also damaged, the committee said.

The prime minister also asked state-owned Electricity of Vietnam to repair the national power grid to ensure electricity supply for the central region, including the Dung Quat oil refinery in Quang Ngai.

Dung Quat, the Southeast Asian nation’s first refinery, has been under repair and was scheduled to resume operations today after a six-week shutdown. Refinery officials declined to confirm whether the plant will start operating again today as planned.

State-owned Vietnam Airlines Corp. planned to resume and increase the number of flights from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to the central provinces today after some flights to the area were canceled from Sept. 28, according to another statement on the government’s website.

Disease outbreaks

Vietnamese provincial authorities need to ensure people have access to sufficient cooking, clothing and medicine, and must prevent outbreaks of disease in the storm’s aftermath while also resuming production, the prime minister said in his statement.

Vietnam’s Health Ministry is concerned about a further spread of swine flu virus, formally known as H1N1, in the area, the department said in a statement. The country has reported 16 swine flu deaths and 9,058 cases since the first infection was confirmed four months ago.

Ketsana left at least 11 people dead in Cambodia after crossing Vietnam, Agence France-Presse reported.

More than 2 million people in the Philippines were affected by the floods caused by Ketsana after it crossed Luzon on Sept. 26 and 736,197 have been evacuated, the Philippines disaster council said today. Forty-two people are missing.

The Philippine government has declared a “state of calamity” for the Manila metropolitan region and other parts of Luzon island as well as Mindoro island to the south.

Ketsana, the 17th storm of the season, is the name of a tree in Laos, according to the Hong Kong Observatory, which lists names for Pacific storms on its website.

Source: Bloomberg