The storm has unleashed some of the worst flooding in a decade to hit the region, having already submerged most of the Philippine capital at the weekend, and governments are struggling to help more than two million survivors.

"I have never seen such a strong wind in my life," Pang Phot, a police officer in Cambodia's badly hit Sandann district, told AFP by telephone.

"Many wooden houses were immediately blown away and many others collapsed to the ground. It was raining heavily and people could not flee their homes because the wind hit immediately," he said.

Ketsana killed 246 people in the Philippines while still a weaker tropical storm, before strengthening over the South China Sea and smashing into Vietnam on Tuesday, leaving another 74 dead from flooding and landslides.

It moved inland to lash Cambodia overnight, killing 11 more people, and caused metre-high floods in Laos, where it was downgraded to a tropical depression on Wednesday.

Authorities in northeastern Thailand were also on high alert but said there had been no damage yet.

Hungry and stranded survivors were marooned on rooftops in flooded parts of central Vietnam, complaining of a slow government response to their plight.

In the historic tourist town of Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage site, some people were trapped on the metal roofs of their homes until soldiers arrived by boat to rescue them, AFP reporters saw.

"We have not received any support from local authorities," a 28-year-old mother of twin toddlers said in nearby Dien Ban district, Quang Nam province, where the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday night.

On Tuesday flooding hit parts of the major city of Danang as well as Hue, the former capital and another World Heritage site.

"Our aid work is very difficult, even with a greater mobilisation from the soldiers and the police, because the scale of the flooding is too vast and we lack equipment," said Phan Nhu Nghia, president of the Vietnamese Red Cross in Danang.

Officials and the UN estimated around 200,000 people in Vietnam had fled their homes. Five hundred and thirty homes had collapsed and 100,000 others were flooded or damaged, they said.

In Cambodia, authorities said the homes of thousands of people had been evacuated as the storm packed winds of up to 145 kilometres (90 miles) an hour.

Nine were killed and 28 injured in central Cambodia while two died in the northeast overnight as the country was battered by the storm, officials said. The victims included a grandmother, mother and three children in one house.

"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, adding that at least 92 houses in his province were destroyed.

In deeply impoverished and isolated Laos, five or six villages had reportedly been flooded in Savannakhet province and aid workers were making their way there by car, aid agency World Vision said.

"We have the capability to urgently ready 500 aid packs if our assessment teams find these are needed," World Vision aid worker Vatthanathavone Inthirath said.

In the Philippines, the United States said Wednesday it would send soldiers and military equipment to help its former colony recover from devastating floods triggered by Ketsana.

Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on Manila and surrounding areas on Saturday, submerging 80 percent of the nation's capital.

Four days later, some areas remained underwater or knee-deep in mud, while hundreds of thousands of people were crammed into makeshift evacuation centres.

Meanwhile, there were warnings that another looming typhoon may add to the devastation. Typhoon Parma was lurking to the east of the Philippines and on course to hit the country on Thursday or Friday.

The European Commission announced two million euros (2.9 million dollars) of emergency humanitarian aid to help typhoon victims in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The money comes on top of a similar sum for the Philippines.

earlier related report
Complaints, despair in flood-ravaged central Vietnam
Hungry, stranded and soaked, victims of Typhoon Ketsana in Vietnam complained Wednesday that official help had been slow to reach them as aid workers despaired at the scale of the disaster.

The typhoon killed at least 74 people here, officials said, after 246 died when the storm struck the Philippine capital Manila over the weekend.

Another 12 people were missing in central Vietnam, the area hardest hit, an official from the flood and storm control committee said, as Ketsana's trail of destruction pushed deeper into Southeast Asia to take in Cambodia and Laos.

"We have not received any support from local authorities," a 28-year-old mother of twin toddlers said in a district of Quang Nam province, 24 hours after the typhoon unleashed heavy rain and fierce winds.

The coastal Dien Ban district is used to vicious storms -- and a delayed response from the communist authorities, the woman said. Normally, aid comes only "some days after the floods," she said.

"My house has been flooded since last night," she said, refusing to be named. "I had to put my bed on top of chairs and tables."

Another woman, who had sought shelter at a local school, said floodwaters had trapped her husband on the roof of their house while he was trying to protect their belongings.

"He has been eating dry instant noodles because he has nothing to cook and no hot water," she said, complaining that local officials gave nothing to evacuees and came only "to get information."

The government's flood and storm committee said 530 houses in the central region had collapsed and 100,000 others were flooded or damaged.

Politicians have ordered officials to assure supplies are in place but it is not easy, said Nguyen Minh Tuan, of the local flood and typhoon response office.

"We are having a lot of difficulties in supplying drinking water, food and medicine for 20,000-30,000 people living in districts that are still flooded," he said.

The Vietnamese Red Cross said it was stepping up efforts to get food and water to flooded areas which were already the poorest part of Vietnam.

"Our aid work is very difficult, even with a greater mobilisation from the soldiers and the police, because the scale of the flooding is too vast and we lack equipment," said Phan Nhu Nghia, president of the Vietnamese Red Cross in Danang.

"Our first priority today is to continue moving people out of danger and to supply water and food to people living in the most affected areas."

Quang Ngai province, with 22 dead, and mountainous Kon Tum, where 21 were killed, bore the brunt of the fatalities, officials said.

Flooding on the main national Highway 1 prevented cars from reaching Quang Ngai, where officials said 500 households had been cut off, but there were no official nationwide figures on the number of people still stranded in pockets.

In the historic tourist town of Hoi An, just south of the main regional city of Danang, some people were trapped on the metal roofs of their homes until soldiers arrived by boat to rescue them, AFP reporters saw.

Hoi An's old quarter was accessible only by boat and several thousand tourists had been moved to drier ground, local officials said.

Ugo Blanco, who is coordinating disaster response for the United Nations, said rain continued in parts of the country, posing a risk of further landslides.

Blanco said the government had prepared well through measures that included warning residents over loudspeakers before the typhoon blew in.

In addition to almost 170,000 people who fled their homes with police and army help ahead of the typhoon, the UN estimated that 30,000 more voluntarily moved to the homes of relatives or left for other provinces.

Tran Hiep, a resident of Thua Thien-Hue province, said dozens of mostly elderly people and children were staying in his four-storey house.

"We are helping each other at a difficult time," Hiep said on state television.

Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons, but the latest toll is among the heaviest in recent years.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News