Floods triggered by storm Noru kill two in Vietnam

Nguyen Van Hue, 55, a Nghi Loc District resident, was swept away by floods in Nghi Cong Nam Commune Wednesday night, the National Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control said. His body was found Thursday morning.

In Ngoc Son Commune of Thanh Chuong District, Nguyen Huu Hoang, 38, was swept away while fishing at around 3 a.m. Thursday. His body was found at noon.

As of Thursday night, rescuers were still trying to find Bui Van Thanh, 58, who went missing while he was on a boat fishing in a flooded paddy field in Nam Dan Town in the morning.

At least 62 people have been injured in Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue and Quang Nam provinces, 160 houses destroyed and over 3,300 houses damaged. Over 7,300 houses in Nghe An are still flooded.

Around 5,300 ha of crops and 3,000 ha of aquaculture have been damaged, 5,300 trees uprooted. Thousands of heads of cattle and poultry were also killed in the flooding and many road sections swept away.

Storm Noru made landfall in Da Nang and neighboring Quang Nam Province at 1 a.m. Wednesday, with a maximum wind speed of 133 kph, making it one the most powerful storms to hit Vietnam in the past two decades.

On Wednesday morning, it moved to Laos and weakened into a tropical depression.