By October 1, the death toll from typhoon Ketsana in Vietnam’s central and Central Highlands provinces had risen to 92 people, with 19 people still missing and 199 injured.

Typhoon Ketsana, the ninth to hit Vietnam so far this year, extended its destructive rampage throughout the central and Central Highlands regions as it destroyed over 6,300 houses and damaged more than 340,000 others, causing the occupants to evacuate or move onto the rooftops.

While there is a warning of the possible arrival of another typhoon, that has reportedly already formed east of the Philippines, Ketsana had enough time to obliterate more than 73,000 ha of rice fields and subsidiary crops, destroy 442 irrigation works, and strand traffic on the Ho Chi Minh trans-national highway and trans-regional highways 49A, 46 and 14.

On the night of September 29, a strong flood swept away nine Vietnamese workers at the construction site of the Secaman hydro-electric power plant 3 in Laos’ Attapu province, which neighbours Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Kon Tum .

By 9 a.m. on October 1, rescue services had still not reached the scene as the flooding had already submerged the construction site, while the river beside the site continued to swell.

The affected provinces have asked the Government to supply them with rice to feed the local people. Nghe An asked for 24,000 tonnes, Quang Binh, 600 tonnes, Quang Tri, 10,000 tonnes, Thua Thien-Hue, 500 tonnes, Quang Ngai 5,000 tonnes, Binh Dinh 2,000 tonnes and Kon Tum, 1,000 tonnes.

They also asked for the provision of rice and other seedlings to enable farmers to start planting as soon as the storm has cleared, in addition to medicines, transport and portable storm shelters.

The National Committee for Search and Rescue said it successfully saved the lives of 86 people cut off in the Dakbla bridge area in Kon Tum province and rescued 15 others in Quang Ngai province.

The rescue services have delivered 4,000 tonnes of relief aid to people living in areas submerged and isolated by flooding in Kon Tum, Quang Nam and Ly Son island in Quang Ngai province.

At the request of the Cambodian authorities, Gia Lai province sent its border guards to rescue 300 Cambodians in neighbouring areas.

Late on September 29, Vietnam Airlines resumed its flights from Phu Bai and Da Nang airports in the central region and will increase the number of flights to the region on Oct. 1 to meet travel demands.

On Oct. 1 the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee launched a campaign to raise funds for people in localities hit by typhoon Ketsana, with initial pledges close to 5 billion VND on the day.

Of the sum, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group donated 3.5 billion VND, the Vietnam Electricity Group, 500 million VND, and the Vietnam Tobacco Corporation and the Office of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee, 200 million VND each./.