Floods kill 23 as tropical storm strikes Vietnam.

Byline: Daily Star Staff

Summary: Severe flooding killed 23 people as tropical storm Mirinae hit parts of central Vietnam on Tuesday.AaFamilies were left stranded on rooftops and two people were missing, disaster officials said. The death toll is expected to rise.AaThe province of Phu Yen was hardest-hit, with a death toll of 15, after the storm drenched the region with heavy rain Monday, said disaster official Dang Thi Lanh.

Tran Van Minh 

Associated Press 

Aa

HANOI: Severe flooding killed 23 people as tropical storm Mirinae hit parts of central Vietnam on Tuesday.Aa

Families were left stranded on rooftops and two people were missing, disaster officials said. The death toll is expected to rise.AaThe province of Phu Yen was hardest-hit, with a death toll of 15, after the storm drenched the region with heavy rain Monday, said disaster official Dang Thi Lanh.

"Many villages remain cut off by rising waters and we expect the death toll to rise," she added.

Several villages in neighboring Binh Dinh Province suffered their worst flooding in four decades, after the Ha Thanh River surged over its banks, said disaster official Nguyen Van Hoa.Aa

Five people were killed by falling trees or were washed away by floods in Binh Dinh and two others were missing, Hoa said.

Three people died in Khanh Hoa Province, south of Phu Yen, said a disaster official who requested to remain anonymous, due to policy.

In Vietnam's western neighbor, Cambodia, a 40-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter died Monday night when the storm toppled trees onto their house in Mondulkiri province, about 520 kilometers east of the capital, Phnom Penh.

Three other people from the same family were injured, said Neth Sophana, deputy chief of the Cambodian Red Cross disaster management committee.

In Vietnam, the military sent two helicopters to drop instant noodles to people in isolated villages and to rescue people who were still trapped on rooftops a day after the storm, which lost force as it moved inland.

"We have received many calls for help from people who are still stranded," Hoa said.

Ho Quoc Dung, vice chairman of Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee, said about 400 soldiers used speed boats to reach areas cut off by flooding and had ferried out over 1,000 villagers.

Several thousand remain stranded, he said.

Mirinae hit the Philippines with typhoon strength over the weekend, killing 20 people before losing power as it moved across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.

Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia were still recovering from Typhoon Ketsana, which brought the Philippine capital of Manila its worst flooding in 40 years when it struck in September. Ketsana killed 160 people in Vietnam and at least 18 in Cambodia.

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