HANOI, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Floods and landslides caused by heavy rain over the weekend in Vietnam's northern mountainous provinces have claimed 19 human lives, left 11 local people missing, and injured 12 others, the country's Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control announced on Wednesday.
Among the dead people, 14 died in landslides, house collapses or flash floods in Lai Chau province, and five were killed in house collapses in Ha Giang province.
All the 11 people listed as missing by Wednesday morning were swept away by floods in Lai Chau.
As of Wednesday morning, the floods and landslides had also destroyed 124 houses and damaged 2,097 others, damaged 1,203 hectares of rice and other crops, killed 251 cattle and 5,919 fowls, swept away some bridges, and caused traffic congestions on many national and provincial roads.
Since the weekend, the flash floods and landslides in the seven northern provinces have caused property losses of some 443.8 billion Vietnamese dong (about 19.6 million U.S. dollars), said the committee.
In the first five months of this year, natural disasters in Vietnam killed 13 local people, injured 21 others, destroyed or damaged nearly 11,000 houses, damaged 6,100 hectares of rice and other crops, and killed 8,200 cattle and 3,500 poultry, leaving property losses of over 544 billion Vietnamese dong (about 24 million U.S. dollars), according to the country's General Statistics Office.
