Southeast Asia Hit With
Historic Floods
By DENIS D. GRAY
Associated Press Writer
Spawned by unrelenting rains, some of the severest floods in
decades have killed at least 130 people in peninsular Southeast
Asia, according to the latest reports Thursday.
Three weeks of flooding in southern Thailand have left 52 people
dead and thousands stranded without provisions in remote areas
while 69 people have perished in central Vietnam, some of them in
landslides. Northern Malaysia, where nine are reported dead, is
suffering the worst floods in 30 years.
In Thailand, a local government official said tens of thousands of
people were stranded without supplies as floods affected nine of 14
provinces in the south.
'Food and water are running out for thousands of families who live
in remote areas that the rescue team has not yet reached,' the
official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did
not want to be seen as criticizing the government.
Pensri Kheawkumpai, a disaster official in Nakorn Srithammarat,
said 12 people have died in the province. Kaj Sentoyep, a disaster
official for the deep south of Thailand, said 40 people have died
in the seven southernmost provinces.
Local officials estimate one million people are affected and that
it will take at least one month for the floods to recede from most
parts of Pattani, Songkhla and Phattalung provinces.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has played down the severity of
the floods, saying Wednesday that 'they were not as bad as the
tsunami.' State-owned media have reported only 19 people
killed.
The opposition Democrat party has accused Thaksin of being slow to
help flood victims because the southern region did not support his
political party in the last election.
'The government has played down the situation and ignored the
plight of the people in southern Thailand because the people in
south did not vote for Thai Rak Thai (Thai Love Thai) party,' said
Sathit Wongnongtoey, an opposition lawmaker.
This year's flooding is regarded as the country's worst in 40
years.
In Vietnam, the coastal Khanh Hoa province has been the worst-hit
with 32 deaths. Nearby Phu Yen province had 14 deaths while Binh
Dinh province had 11 and central Quang Ngai province had five
deaths.
Victims have included two children who drowned and nine
construction workers buried under a mountain of earth.
Officials at the national weather center in Hanoi said Wednesday
that rains will continue through the weekend, giving little relief
to the heavily soaked region. River levels remain high but have
started receding.
In the Central Highlands province of Daklak, the country's main
coffee-growing region, which has reported seven deaths, the coffee
harvest has been postponed, said Pham Xuan Truong, the provincial
disaster official. Truong said the floods have damaged about 1,235
acres of coffee.
The latest victims in Malaysia were two brothers who drowned while
fishing in floodwaters in Kedah state, said police officer Shahidan
Ladin.
More than 18,000 people are staying in relief camps in Kedah,
Shahidan said, adding that the state airport remains flooded and
many roads, including a major highway, are impassable.
Another 10,000 evacuees remained at relief centers in the nearby
states of Perlis, Kelantan and Perak, although numbers were
dropping as people returned home, the New Straits Times
reported.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who visited flood victims in
Perlis, said his government will asses the damage to decide on
compensation for poor farmers who have lost their livelihoods,
according to the report.
Peninsular Malaysia's northern states usually suffer floods during
the monsoon season between November and March, but the flooding in
Perlis, Kedah, Perak, Kelantan and Terengganu states this year has
been deemed the worst in 30 years.