Lekima's Vietnam Death Toll Rises to 86

Friday, October 12th 2007, 8:16 am

By: News On 6

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) _ The death toll from Vietnam's Typhoon Lekima rose to 86 as rescue workers rushed to get aid to thousands of people still stuck in flooded areas, officials said Wednesday.

Eleven more bodies were recovered in the worst-hit province of Nghe An, and one more body was discovered in Son La province. Nine people were still missing and feared dead.

The flood waters that inundated central Vietnam continued receding Wednesday, but large sections of Nghe An and neighboring Thanh Hoa province remained unreachable by car.

``The waters are receding, but very slowly,'' said Do Minh Chinh a disaster official in Thanh Hoa province, where 15 people died.

The International Federation of the Red Cross and the Vietnamese government estimated that about 10 million Vietnamese had been affected by Typhoon Lekima, said Joe Lowry, a Red Cross official said from Ninh Binh.

The typhoon washed away 6,000 houses, damaged 52,000 houses and destroyed about 200,000 acres of crops, Lowry said.

Vietnam's Department of Floods and Storms Control said earlier the initial damage estimate from the typhoon was $131 million.

Vietnam is prone to floods and storms that kill hundreds of people each year.