Tragedy in Vietnam

A tropical depression that hit Vietnam’s central coast last Tuesday has left 72 people dead, making it one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country in decades.

The Vietnam Disaster Management Authority issued a statement last night saying that 30 people are still missing and 33 injured, the Associated Press reports.

Over 30,000 homes are under water from severe floods and landslides which have also ruined crops, buildings and roads. Multiple villages are isolated by the damage, hindering the search efforts of 4000 police, soldiers and residents actively looking for missing people.

As recovery work begins, another natural disaster is due to hit Vietnam later this week. Typhoon Khanun has been upgraded from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, and is currently making its way across the South China Sea.

Over 13,000 Vietnamese have died in the past 20 years as a result of natural disasters. Country Director for the World Bank in Vietnam Achim Fock said Vietnam needs to drastically improve its protective measures. “If Vietnam does not invest in disaster resilience today, it misses an opportunity for social, economic and environmental progress that will have impacts for years to come,” Fock said at a Hanoi conference on Friday.

Vietnam is the seventh most disaster-prone in the world.