Nguyen Huu Tuyen, head of Vietnam Railway Corporation’s Transport Business Department, said that Thong Nhat trains, which transport passengers between HCMC and Hanoi, will return to normal operations on November 8 at the latest.

The corporation’s steering committee for flood and storm prevention earlier reported that Typhoon Mirinae damaged 71 kilometers of track at 25 sections in the central region, with 20,000 cubic meters of soil and stones having slid onto the rails.

The railway’s information and signal system was also extremely damaged.

In related news, in the wake of relief activities for central flood victims, Huynh Thi Nhan, deputy Secretary of HCMC Party Committee, November 7 visited and gave VND21 million (US$1,166) to three households in Tuy An District and the town of Song Cau, Phu Yen Province. They had lost seven relatives in the floods.

One day earlier, she gave the province Fatherland Front Committee VND1.5 billion ($83,000) and 4.7 tons of relief commodities, which were donated by the city’s residents to help people in the province overcome storm and flood damage.

During November 6 and 7, Sai Gon Giai Phong visited 75 bereaved families in Dong Xuan, Tuy An and Song Cau Districts and presented them with VND1 million each.

The newspaper also presented 1,000 instant noodle boxes and other cookings to people in badly flooded areas, as well as 5,000 notebooks, schoolbooks and 20 sets of tables for primary and nursery schools in the mountainous commune of Xuan Lam in Song Cau.

Doctors from the city-based medical university, Pham Ngoc Thach, with the assistance of the newspaper will check health and deliver medicine to residents in An Dinh and An Nghiep communes of Tuy An District on November 8.

VietNamNet/SGGP