HUE (UCAN): Caritas Vietnam has come to the aid of those who suffered the loss of relatives, properties and homes in flooding in the country’s central provinces.
Vietnam’s Disaster Management Authority reported that strong winds, heavy rains and flooding, which started to hit 10 central provinces on October 7, had killed 28 people and left 12 missing. Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated to high ground.
The authority said over 131,500 houses were destroyed or submerged by floodwater, 8,000 hectares of crops and fishing farms were damaged and 156,000 cattle and poultry were dead.
Bishop Thomas Vu Dinh Hieu, head of Caritas Vietnam, and Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Vietnam, have called on Vietnamese Catholics around the world to pray and send donations to disaster victims to help them to overcome the havoc.
“In the spirit of solidarity, we would like to share all your losses and pray to God of Mercy to receive the dead and console those who lost their beloved relatives,” the bishops said in an open message issued on October 12.
People from the provinces of Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue have suffered flooding three times since mid-September.
Volunteers from some parishes use boats to visit and provide food for people isolated by floods. They also take elderly people and children to church facilities to avoid floodwater.
Authorities in the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam asked the central government to supply emergency aid—rice, instant noodles, medicine and health equipment—to local victims.
One young couple in Quang Nam province drowned while they were on their way home from a wedding party on October 10. Their bodies were found the following day. Their only daughter is two-years-old.
On October 12, Nguyen Dac Minh saw his pregnant wife washed away in the floodwaters while they were on the way to the hospital in Thua Thien Hue province’s Phong Dien district so she could give birth. The hospital is only two kilometers from their home. A small boat carrying her through the floods to a road where a taxi was waiting overturned in rough water. Rescue workers found her body later that day. She left two children aged 10 and 12.
