Heavy rains continue to cause widespread flooding and landslides across Southeast Asia and have claimed several more lives as authorities mobilise to try to help.
One person was confirmed to have been killed in Vietnam on Monday, bringing the death toll in the country to 91 people in just over a week. A further five victims died in Thailand.
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Vietnam’s weather agency has warned that the heavy rainfall that has been lashing the country since October could return later this week, posing an extra risk in some areas. Nearly half of Vietnam’s more than 100 million people live in flood-prone areas.
The highest number of casualties recorded in Vietnam has come in the mountainous central province of Dak Lak, where at least 63 people have drowned.
Fatalities have also been reported in the provinces of Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong, Gia Lai, Danang, Hue and Quang Tri as Vietnam’s south-central region has been plagued with severe flooding and landslides.
The Southeast Asian country has suffered at least $500m in damage as a result of the relentless rainfall with entire city blocks inundated and agricultural lands submerged.
The government has deployed tens of thousands of personnel to deliver food, medicine and other essentials, with helicopters used to provide relief in some flood-stricken areas and highlands.
Monsoon rains annually cause flooding in Southeast Asia, but this year they have been particularly heavy.
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Vietnam is usually prone to deluges from June to September, but scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather more frequent and destructive.
In Thailand, flash floods have been reported across southern parts of the country, affecting nearly two million people, officials said.
Local authorities reported that the city of Hat Yai, a major economic hub in Songkhla province, was hit with 335 millimetres (more than 13 inches) of rain on Friday, the highest 24-hour figure in 300 years.
Precipitation in the city was nearly double that amount from Wednesday to Friday. More rain is expected to affect Thailand in the coming days.
The country has been hammered by intense rainfall causing floods over the past year with at least 25 people killed in December.
In Malaysia, local authorities said on Monday that more than 12,500 people had been evacuated.
The northeastern state of Kelantan, which borders Thailand, has been the worst hit with more than 8,000 people affected. No deaths have been reported.
The floods and landslides come after typhoons smashed into the region in September and October.
The United Nations International Organization for Migration estimated that those storms caused damage of $1.2bn in Vietnam with more than half a million homes damaged and hundreds of thousands of people evacuated.
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