More than 1.2 million homes destroyed by central Vietnam floods

Geneva, Oct 28 (efe-epa).- More than 1.2 million homes have been destroyed by floods in central Vietnam and the situation could worsen Wednesday with the arrival of Typhoon Molave ??on these shores, the International Federation of Red Cross said Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of people need shelter, clean water, health care and food after the center of the country was ravaged by four major storms in the last month, a statement from the Geneva-based organization said.

The federation has launched a request for international aid of 3.9 million Swiss francs ($4.2 million dollars) to attend to these affected, whose number could increase due to the effects of Typhoon Molave.

For its part, the national Red Cross organization in Vietnam is assisting volunteers and employees in the evacuation of more than 1.3 million people in the area where the typhoon is expected to hit the hardest.

“All the strenuous efforts to contain the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are being counteracted by the serious storms that are hitting us,”, said Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, president of the Vietnamese Red Cross.

The Red Cross estimates that at least 150,000 people are at risk of famine after previous storms destroyed thousands of hectares of crops and killed more than 2 million livestock.

The previous storms in the last month have caused 130 deaths and 20 missing from floods and landslides. EFE-EPA

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