Unusual natural disasters in the past two months killed 192 people, with 57 still missing, making an estimated loss of VND30 trillion (US$1.3 billion), according to a report from the Vietnamese government.

Vietnam’s central provinces bore most of the losses, the government said, adding that the region has had a tough year when the two-month toll exceeded the losses of last year, official data showed.

The central region’s important tourism industry crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic long before the arrival of nine typhoons that wiped out crops and damaged homes of hundreds of thousands people.

Houses in Thua Thien-Hue provinces are flooded. Photo: Tran Mai

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said:“We have to ensure shelter for our residents who are suffering from hunger or lacking fresh water post-typhoon,” Mr. Cuong added.

Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding due to its long coastline. About 11.8 million people in Vietnam’s coastal provinces are exposed to the threat of intense flooding.

Natural disasters in central Vietnam in the two months were mainly storms, heavy rains, landslides and tornadoes and caused severe consequences.

Mr. Cuong stressed that October was a month of terrible natural disasters in central Vietnam. In just one month, the central provinces had to deal with five storms, two tropical depressions, floods, and landslides.

Regarding storm Molave ​​which made landfall in the central region on October 28, Mr. Cuong noted that this was one of the two strongest typhoons in the past 20 years and causes severe consequences.

The minister added that Molave blew away 92,000 houses’ roofs, including 88,000 in Quang Nam province; brought down 5,000 houses and damaged more than 600 schools and hospitals.

According to the General Statistics Office, natural disasters occurred in October destroyed 111.9 thousand houses, killed three thousand cattle and 600.5 thousand poultry, and shattered 45 thousand hectares of rice and 22.3 thousand hectares of other crops.