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At least 12 killed by latest round of flooding in Vietnam

By the CNN Wire Staff
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Heavy rains and severe flooding in central Vietnam led to the deaths of 12 people
  • Water levels continue to rise in the region, the state-run news agency reports
  • One dam has broken and another is in danger, while thousands of homes are under water
  • Two weeks earlier, 66 people in region died after record-setting rains and subsquent flooding

(CNN) -- Twelve people have died, and another nine are missing, due to torrential rains and subsequent severe flooding in central Vietnam, state-run news agencies reported Monday.

The situation threatened to worsen, with thousands of homes submerged and water levels rising in the Lam River, Ke Go Lake and elsewhere, according to news reports. Fissures appeared early Saturday in the Mo dam in Ha Trinh province, leading to the submersion of the nearby Son Ham commune as its 6,000 residents fled to the mountains, while flood waters overflowed the Tan Long dam in Son Long later that day.

Authorities have found the bodies of seven people washed away by floods in Ha Trinh province, as well as three more drowned in Nghe An province's Nghi Loc district. It was not immediately clear, based on news reports, where the other dead and missing people came from.

Throughout the region, people and cattle could be seen sitting on roofs, while boats floated through what would otherwise have been the nation's streets. About 1 meter of water lay over some parts of a Highway 1A, a north-south connection through Vietnam, and service on the north-south railway through the southeastern Asian nation was suspended, reported state-run Vietnam News.

The Vietnamese government is distributing 2,000 tons of rice and $10 million worth of aid to the worst-hit areas, in Ha Trinh and Quang Binh provinces, reports said.

Record-setting rains a few weeks earlier in central Vietnam spurred severe flooding that killed 66 people and inundated more than 10,000 dwellings. Hundreds of Vietnamese troops were dispatched to the region in the first week of October to help with rescue operations and help residents and business owners deal with millions of dollars of damage.