Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assigned the Ministry of Finance to allocate more than 4,303 tonnes of rice from the national reserve for residents affected by recent storms and floods in three central provinces.

Accordingly, 3,000 tonnes of rice will be provided for Ha Tinh province, 303 tonnes for Nghe An province and 1,000 tonnes for Binh Dinh province.

The PM asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to prepare information and data for reports while the People’s Committees of the three provinces to promptly receive and distribute the allocated rice to right people in line with regulations.

Natural disasters have claimed 280 lives and caused a total loss of approximately 29.9 trillion VND (close to 1.29 billion USD) to Vietnam since the beginning of this year, according to the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

The natural disasters also injured 856 people and left 66 others unaccounted for. Torrential rains, floods and landslides collapsed over 3,420 houses, damaged over 327,700 and submerged nearly 509,800 others, affecting livelihoods of millions of people.

The country has so far recorded 13 typhoons entering the East Sea, 114 flash floods and landslides, 86 earthquakes and 264 thunderstorms and whirlwinds while drought, saltwater intrusion and river and coastal erosion have wreaked havoc across the Mekong Delta provinces.

Typhoon Vamco, the 13th storm to enter the East Sea this year, has so far caused 24 people in central Vietnam to suffer injuries.

Seven houses collapsed and more than 7,500 others were damaged or had their roofs blown away. The tropical storm also sank and destroyed 27 vessels and eroded close to 39km of riverbank and sea dykes./.
VNA