S.East Asian flood toll, damage rise after typhoon

HANOI, Oct 4: Floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Xangsane have killed more than 150 people in Vietnam and the Philippines in the past week, officials said today.

The typhoon's fierce winds and rain destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes when it slammed Vietnam's central coast on Sunday after bringing parts of the Philippines, including the capital Manila, to a standstill last week.

Vietnam's resort city of Danang, the country's fourth largest with 1 million people, was hardest-hit by the typhoon, both in terms of casualties and damage to homes, power supply and its seafood industry.

The National Flood and Storm Control Committee said at least 42 people were killed in Vietnam by the storm or swept away by floods in its aftermath. Seven were missing and 502 injured.

Initial estimates of damage were around 9.98 trillion dong (623 million dollars), the government said.

The committee warned residents along a 1,000 km area from Thanh Hoa province in the north to Daklak province in the Central Highlands to ''be prepared for flash floods, landslides and flooding in the low-lying areas''.

Heavy rains since Sunday have raised rivers to dangerous levels.

Officials in the Philippines said today that the death toll had risen to 110 from 78 on Monday.

At least 88 people were injured and a further 79 were still missing. Around 2.9 billion pesos (58 million dollars) worth of properties were damaged by Xangsane, which means ''elephant'' in the Lao language.

The storm weakened after crossing into Vietnam and moved west across Laos and into Thailand.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are killed and property and crops damaged each year by tropical storms in the two countries, which are separated by the South China Sea.

Reuters