Over 5,000 families need immediate help in Cambodia: Oxfam

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia is still in emergency relief mode though flood waters in some areas are beginning to stabilize, the international humanitarian agency Oxfam said Tuesday in its press release. Affected populations are in need of food, plastic sheets, mosquito nets, water filters and water containers among other non-food item needs. Livelihoods have greatly been threatened especially with loss of the current rice crop. Wage labour opportunities are no longer available to those who rely on agriculture labour for income, the release said. According to Oxfam, 5,000 families or about 20,000 people need immediate assistance in four provinces. This figure may grow bigger as more information is received and more areas accessed. Oxfam's staff reported that flood victims in Kampong Thom, StuengTreng, Kratie, and Preah Vihear remain among the most vulnerable. Source: China View "We can't underestimate the situation" said Francis Perez, Country Lead of Oxfam International in Cambodia. "We are still in an emergency situation. Public health concerns and people's livelihoods are our priorities. We must keep strong coordination with other humanitarian agencies." It is now estimated that 60,000 people are affected with at least 17 deaths including one pregnant woman, 65 injured with 18 serious cases and 30,000 hectares of rice fields and plantation destroyed by flood waters. Oxfam's field reports show that 1,519 houses, 55 public buildings, 40 km of rural roads, 160 irrigation systems, channels, dams, embankments, and three bridges were damaged, causing major disruption to people's livelihoods. Relief works are hampered by transportation problem as roads and bridges have been damaged. The traditionally dispersed settlements of Cambodian people also make some of the forested villages inaccessible for need assessment and aid distribution, whilst public health concerns are mounting among unaccounted population in remote and forested villages. Oxfam's health experts warn that people must be careful about drinking water, as flood waters are highly contaminated.

Strong Indonesia quake kills hundreds, traps more

PADANG, Indonesia – A powerful earthquake that struck western Indonesia trapped thousands of people under collapsed buildings — including hospitals, a hotel and a classroom, officials said. At least 200 bodies were found in one coastal city and the toll was expected to be far higher.

The temblor Wednesday started fires, severed roads and cut off power and communications to Padang, a coastal city of 900,000 on Sumatra island. Thousands fled in panic, fearing a tsunami. It was felt hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in Malaysia and Singapore, causing buildings there to sway.

The undersea quake of 7.6 magnitude was followed by a powerful, shallow inland earthquake on Thursday morning with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It hit about 150 miles (240 kilometers) south of Padang at a depth of just under 20 miles (24 kilometers).

Shallow, inland earthquakes generally are more destructive. There were reports that the second quake badly damaged dozens of additional buildings.

In Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, the shaking was so intense from Wednesday's temblor that people crouched or sat on the street to avoid falling. Children screamed as an exodus of thousands of frantic residents fled the coast in cars and motorbikes, honking horns.

At least 500 buildings in Padang collapsed or were badly damaged, said Disaster Management Agency spokesman Priyadi Kardono, adding that 200 bodies had been pulled from the rubble there. The extent of damage in surrounding areas was still unclear due to poor communications. Indonesia, a poor, sprawling nation with limited resources, was cobbling together an emergency aid response, and the government was preparing for the possibility of thousands of deaths. Read more...........

Source: Yahoo News

Asia typhoon toll 350, floods in Vietnam, Cambodia

HOI AN, Vietnam (Reuters) – Floods and landslides were expected to hit Vietnam and nearby nations on Thursday after a typhoon cut a destructive path through South East Asia, killing nearly 350 people.

State media in Vietnam said 85 people had died and 12 were missing after typhoon Ketsana swept through the country late on Tuesday. The government initially estimated damages in five of 12 affected provinces at more than $120 million.

Eleven people died in Cambodia and the Philippines where the typhoon first struck last weekend, with 246 reported deaths. Thailand was sending troops to provide humanitarian assistance in anticipation of floods.

River waters in Vietnam's eight coastal and central highland provinces were receding on Thursday, but the national weather bureau warned of more flash floods and landslides in mountainous areas and high waters in low-lying areas.

Military rescue teams rushed medicine, food and blankets to flood victims and in several areas people were airlifted from marooned houses, a Reuters witness said.

Floodwaters submerged many old houses in Hoi An city, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Transport was restricted to boats.

The region hit by Ketsana lies far north of Vietnam's Mekong Delta rice basket. Farmers in Vietnam, the world's largest robusta coffee producer, struggled to dry beans after heavy rains battered the country's growing area, raising quality concern.

Ketsana damaged 740 hectares of rubber and coffee in Daklak, Vietnam's top coffee-growing province where 180,000 hectares of coffee has been planted, a government report said.

Typhoon kills nearly 50 in Vietnam, Cambodia

HOI AN, Vietnam (AFP) – Typhoon Ketsana left a trail of destruction across Southeast Asia Wednesday, killing at least 49 people in Vietnam and Cambodia and churning towards Laos, officials said.

Tens of thousands of people had fled their homes to escape flooding caused by Ketsana, which had already killed 246 when it struck the Philippines over the weekend as a weaker tropical storm. Related article: Philippines destruction

Floodwaters hit swathes of Vietnam including ancient UN World Heritage sites, and aid workers across the region were trying to evacuate stranded people and get supplies to other survivors.

The death toll in Vietnam rose overnight to at least 38 people with another 10 people missing, and could climb higher, said an official from the flood and storm control committee in the central Vietnam city of Danang.

Ketsana made landfall in Vietnam on Tuesday afternoon and weakened in the night to become a tropical depression which had reached the border of Laos early Wednesday, an official from the national storm centre in Hanoi told AFP.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in Laos, a government spokesman there said, but Cambodian police and government officials said at least 11 had died in that country's northeastern and central regions.

"At least nine people were crushed last night when their houses fell down," said Chea Cheat, chief of the Red Cross office in central Kampong Thom province.

Chea Cheat added that at least 78 houses in his province were destroyed Tuesday evening and that heavy rain and rising floods were continuing.

International organisations and government officials in Cambodia said they were distributing tents and food while assessing damage across at least five of the country's provinces.

Central Vietnam bore the brunt of the typhoon's impact, with the country's flood and storm control committee saying that 168,585 people in six coastal provinces had been evacuated. Many areas were without power.

In Vietnam, the ancient town of Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage site close to the South China Sea, was flooded Wednesday morning, AFP reporters observed.

On Tuesday flooding hit parts of Danang as well as Hue, the former capital and another World Heritage site, where residents used small wooden and steel boats to move around.

State-run Vietnam News carried a front-page photograph of houses almost submerged by brown floodwaters in Kon Tum province. Flooding also struck 20,000 hectares (about 50,000 acres) of agricultural land, the storm committee said.

Military helicopters may join the rescue effort, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said late Tuesday.

"We will focus on rescuing those who are isolated," particularly in Kon Tum and Quang Ngai provinces, he said. "We have to immediately evacuate households on the banks of three rivers and areas that may suffer from landslides."

An update on the rescue effort was not immediately available Wednesday.

"We want the defence ministry to send armoured vehicles or trucks that can go in water to help people because we don't have enough boats," the chairman of the People's Committee in Kon Tum said Tuesday night.

"Several people are now sitting on the top of their house or on the top of trees. We cannot reach them."

Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons. At least 41 people died in September 2008 when Typhoon Hagupit struck the country's north.

Source: AP

Notice from the Govement to prevent in advance about the storm