Labour exporters to review trawler case

HA NOI — The five companies that sent 11 Vietnamese to work aboard the South Korean fish trawler which sank off Antarctica on Monday have been ordered to do urgent tasks.

The Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Ministry's Management of Overseas Labour Department has told them to send representatives to South Korea to deal with the aftermaths of the sinking; the identify of the dead and missing – presumed dead – and those who were saved.

The department requires the five companies to ask the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Consular Office and Viet Nam's embassies in South Korea and New Zealand for more information.

They will also have to ask the diplomats to provide any essential documents.

In addition, they must inform the families and localities of the seafarers of their findings and provide support through any losses and difficulties.

The companies have been instructed to ask the trawler owner to ensure treatment for the rescued fishermen; the buying of e-tickets and the completion of procedures for those who want to return home.

They must also liquidate contracts with the workers who return to Viet Nam in accordance with the law.

The department has proposed that the families of the missing fishermen empower the companies or the trawler owner to make the necessary funeral arrangements and issue the appropriate declarations about the missing.

The department requires the five companies to work with their partners to pay all the salaries, allowances, bonuses and any other welfare due the fishermen.

They must also complete insurance procedures and arrange support from the overseas employment support fund in accordance with the regulations.

They must also issue regular updates.

The toothfish trawler sank in freezing waters early in the morning about 1,850km north of Antarctica and 2,700km south of New Zealand.

The New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre says it's not known what caused the ship to sink and no distress call was made.

But information from the ship carrying the survivors suggests the boat sank quickly, giving the crew no time to don life jackets or immersion suits.

The water temperature was about 2 degrees and estimated survival time without proper equipment was about ten minutes.

One of the Vietnamese crew was reported dead with three missing and seven rescued.

The trawler had 42 crew aboard with 17 still missing. — VNS

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13 killed as more floods torment central Vietnam

Another round of flooding in central Vietnam has killed at least 13 people and left four missing, the Central Committee for Storms and Floods Control said Wednesday (November 3).

The highest death toll was in Khanh Hoa Province where five victims were killed, the committee said in a report on its website.

The third round of flooding to hit the region over the past month has damaged nearly 20,000 houses and thousands of hectares of crops in many provinces, including Ninh Thuan and Khanh Hoa, it said.

Traffic also suffered because of the floods with landslides covering main streets.

National carrier Vietnam Airlines on Wednesday said Cam Ranh Airport in Khanh Hoa Province was cut off and that bad weather had prompted them to cancel 12 domestic flights on Monday and Tuesday.

However, the weather improved on Wednesday, and the airline used bigger planes to help transport the delayed passengers.

In some provinces, local people and authorities blamed hydropower reservoirs for worsening the floods.

Last month the central region was hit by floods and 165 people were reported dead or missing.

In other news, Pham Quang Luan, a police representative in the central province of Quang Tri Wednesday said they have found the bodies of two passengers who went missing when their bus was swept away in floods in Ha Tinh Province on October 18.

The bus, which was en route to Nam Dinh Province, was carrying 38 passengers when the accident took place.

Eighteen people managed to escape from the bus after it fell into the Lam River, while 20 others were reported missing. Rescuers recovered the bus four days after the accident and have found 18 bodies so far.

The driver, Tran Van Truong, is currently in custody while an investigation is carried out.

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Rescuers find bus lost in central flood

Rescue workers attempt to recover a bus that gushing floodwaters swept into the La River, in Ha Tinh Province. As of press time, 20 passengers had been listed as dead or missing and 15 bodies have been recovered in and around the wreckage.

Rescuers on Wednesday (October 20) finally located a bus that had been swept away by floodwaters on Monday in Ha Tinh Province.

Thirty-eight people were onboard. Twenty have been listed as dead or missing. At around 11:55 a.m. on Thursday the bus was towed to a nearby shore. The body of a three year old child floated out of the ruined vehicle. Divers extracted nine other corpses from the tomblike vessel; five others were found washed upon the shore or floating in nearby waters. Police are now attempting to identify the corpses. Several families have already identified their dead and are preparing the bodies for funeral rites.

Divers located the vehicle on the bottom of the La River about one kilometer from where it plunged into the river. Early this month, the central region suffered the worst floods in 30 years. 54 people were killed, two were declared missing and 44 injured -not including those on the bus.

One of the survivors, 57-year-old Nguyen Thanh Thang, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper that the bus broke down near the Rong Bridge at around 4 a.m. in Ha Tinh Province’s Nghi Xuan District. The bus was en route from Dak Nong to Nam Dinh Province.

Thang said the passengers thought that the rushing water was simply passing under the bus before realizing they were in danger.

As the river swelled, flood waters swept down and threw the bus into the river.

CASUALTIES IN FLOOD

* 54 people were killed. This doesn’t include the 66 that died in the flood from September 29-October 5. * Another 20 people were missing and 44 other injured. * 319 communes in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces are still flooded. 35 communes in Nghe An are considered isolated. * 266,659 homes were flooded (Source: Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control, statistics as reported by 9 pm on October 20)

Eighteen people smashed windows and swam to safety. Those who couldn’t swim remained inside or clung to the bus, not knowing what to do. Thang, the survivor, guessed that the vehicle was completely submerged after about 20 minutes.

Passenger Tran Dang Luc, 47, recalled the horrifying sound of his son crying for help.

“He cried out ‘dad, I can’t swim’,” he told Vietnam News Agency. Luc tried to push his son and his niece out of the sinking bus but the terrified kids kept darting back into the vehicle, he said.

“I hope they can recover their bodies,” he said.

Forty-six-year-old Tran Thi Mung, another passenger, was rescued while struggling to swim ashore. Her 19-year-old son Tuyen remains missing.

“We clung to the bus for 15 to 20 minutes. My son told me, ‘Mom, I’m very cold,’” Mung told the Associated Press (AP). “We were together, and he was holding my hand.”

Tuyen can’t swim and Mung has never been in deep water. As they clung to the bus, she tried to prepare Tuyen for their ordeal, first telling him to remove his clothes and then to lie back and float. But he was too scared and there was no time. He decided to help others instead.

“He kept calling into the bus, urging the others to take the children outside and give them to the strong young men,” Mung was quoted by AP as saying. “He managed to take out one child that was saved.”

Minutes later, the bus began to sink and Mung lost her hold on Tuyen. She tried to keep her own head above water, she watched her son drown.

“I saw him slowly disappear in the water and he yelled, ‘Mom, where are you?’” she told AP, gasping as she wiped her swollen eyes.” The current was so strong, I could not reach him. I still remember that image vividly of him slowly sinking with his hand waving, trying to ask for help.”

Just then, the bus rolled onto its side and vanished into the murky water, with several screaming passengers still huddled inside.

Mung thrashed around in the swift waters for 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). She was saved, finally, by a fisherman – aged 19 like Tuyen.

RED CROSS APPEALS FOR $1 MLN

The International Red Cross appealed for more than US$1 million in aid for victims of heavy flooding in Vietnam, AFP reported on Monday (October 18). “With large parts of central Vietnam still battling the after-effects of flooding, which has killed dozens of people and affected half a million residents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is launching an emergency appeal for 1,034,754 Swiss francs ($1.08 million, 772,216 euros) to assist survivors,” it said in a statement. Federation spokesman Paul Conneally said the numbers included those who have been displaced or suffered damages to their homes, land or agricultural property. The Red Cross said fresh flooding since last week has added to damage caused by torrential rains earlier in the month, when rivers burst their banks and dams overflowed. As of Thursday (October 20) Thanh Nien’s readers had donated a total of VND5.86 billion ($300,667) to help flood victims in the central region. The paper has been organizing trips to the area to deliver the relief funds.

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Bus tragedy claims 14 lives - six still missing

Rescue teams on Oct. 21 managed to lift a coach with 10 dead passengers inside from a river in central Ha Tinh province.

Another four dead were found in sections of the Lam River .

Six more people are missing and rescuers are still looking for them.

Earlier, another 17 passengers managed to escape or were rescued.

Raging floodwaters from the Lam River swept the coach from National Highway 1A on Oct. 18. It was later found submerged 100 metres away.

Floodwaters in the province are forecast to stay high for at least the next three days.

The National Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Prevention said that flooding in the central region had left 66 people dead, eight missing and 44 injured.

Nearly 320 communes are reported to have been submerged. More than 50 are still isolated and in need of food and clean water.

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that more than 47,000ha of rice and subsidiary crops have been submerged and thousands of tonnes of rice destroyed.

The floods also swept away about 74,000 cattle and fowls. Nghe An is the worst-hit area with more than 29,000ha of crops under water.

Also on Oct. 21, about 155,000 students from 297 schools in Vinh city, Nghe An province, went back to school after one week off.

However, more than 50,000 students will probably not be able to resume schooling for another week because 145 schools and many roads remain submerged.

Nearly 500 million VND (25,500 USD) and tonnes of clothing, books and learning aids have been donated to help students disadvantaged by the floodwaters.

The National Hydro-meteorological Forecast Centre said the eye of Storm Megi is expected to be over China 's Guangdong Province within the next 72 hours.

Wind gusts of between 49 to 88km per hour are predicted for the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed the Vietnamese Embassy in Brunei to verify and complete the necessary procedures to return 16 fishermen who were rescued by Brunei 's ship on Oct. 19 to their homes in the central province of Quang Ngai . These fishermen had been in distress at sea while they were being on board of the QNg96455-TS ship.

The Ministry of Finance has asked its departments in flood-hit provinces to keep a check on prices.

Departments have also been told to stockpile rice, medicine and other food in areas prone to disasters.

They will also work with other government offices to repair damage caused by the disasters so that life can quickly return to normal.

The ministry has also asked that finance departments send reports on price and market developments.

This is aimed at firms attempting to unfairly profit from the disaster./.

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Floods’ death toll climbs to 35 in central Vietnam

As of Monday night, floods caused by the torrential rains that began last Wednesday have killed at least 35 people in Vietnam’s Central region, the Central Committee of Storm and Flood Control reported.

Another two in Ha Tinh province were reported missing, while Quang Binh reported three injured, according to the latest figures released by the committee.

In the meantime, 19 people who went missing when a bus carrying 37 people was swept away in Ha Tinh’s Xuan Lam Commune on Monday remain at large.

Floods have destroyed nearly 200,000 houses in affected provinces, the committee reported, warning that water levels at local rivers will keep rising, as rains continue to pound the provinces.

In unrelated news, at a committee meeting held Monday, Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said his agency has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to urge China to let the nine fishermen who are now stuck on the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago stay there until supertyphoon Megi ends.

The fishermen, who contacted their families Sunday, more than five days after they were announced missing, following China’s release, should also be provided with food, water and oil as well as support in repairing their boat, Phat said.

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Floods’ death toll climbs to 35 in central Vietnam

As of Monday night, floods caused by the torrential rains that began last Wednesday have killed at least 35 people in Vietnam’s Central region, the Central Committee of Storm and Flood Control reported.

Another two in Ha Tinh province were reported missing, while Quang Binh reported three injured, according to the latest figures released by the committee.

In the meantime, 19 people who went missing when a bus carrying 37 people was swept away in Ha Tinh’s Xuan Lam Commune on Monday remain at large.

Floods have destroyed nearly 200,000 houses in affected provinces, the committee reported, warning that water levels at local rivers will keep rising, as rains continue to pound the provinces.

In unrelated news, at a committee meeting held Monday, Cao Duc Phat, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said his agency has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to urge China to let the nine fishermen who are now stuck on the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Archipelago stay there until supertyphoon Megi ends.

The fishermen, who contacted their families Sunday, more than five days after they were announced missing, following China’s release, should also be provided with food, water and oil as well as support in repairing their boat, Phat said.

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Central floods leave 19 dead, 4 missing

Floods damage houses in Ha Tinh province

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Floods have killed 19 people, with four others still missing in the central provinces as of Sunday, according to the Central Committee for Floods Prevention and Control.

Around 100,000 houses were submerged in flood waters, forcing thousands of people to be evacuated from their homes.

On Sunday, severe flooding raised the water level of the Ngan Sau River in Ha Tinh province to 3 meters, higher than the flood peak of the river in 2007.

Floods raged in all parts of the province, with the rainfall reaching more than 800 millimeters in the capital city of Ha Tinh and Hoa Duyet District.

The flood have left seven people dead, three missing, hundreds of isolated villages, and more than 83,500 households inundated.

Tuoi Tre reporters followed the provincial border guard soldiers in a boat to Gia Pho commune in Huong Khe District. When we arrived at the site, only several roofs were spotted among a sea of water.

Some local residents waved their hands through the holes on their roofs, some rowed small boats from their inundated houses to ask for instant noodles. Most of them said they were in need of fresh water.

Nguyen Hung Tien, one of the residents, said the villagers slept on the roofs last night, using rain coats as blankets.

Le Tran Sang, vice chairman of Huong Khe District People’s Committee, said the district had 18,000 inundated houses. A suspension bridge was washed away by floods on Saturday.

Ha Tinh province’s authorities have sent helicopters to supply food to resident in the Huong Khe District.

In Nghe An province, heavy rains with the rainfall of 700-800 millimeters submerged five districts, and isolated nine communes. The province has reported eight deaths and 15,000 inundated houses.

Quang Binh province has reported four deaths and one missing people.

Nguyen Van Binh, deputy director of the Hanoi Passenger Railway Company, said around 3,000 passengers in 12 trains were stranded at the stations in Vinh City and Dong Hoi town.

Earlier, on Saturday, flood waters completely shut down operations of the North-South railway from Vinh to Dong Hoi.

Railway authorities have sent 60 buses to carry passengers from Vinh to Dong Hoi and the other way round. But some buses had to stop as several sections of the National Highway 1A were deeply flooded.

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Floods leave three more dead and missing in central region

Continued heavy rains and floods left three more dead and missing in central provinces between October 14-16, according to the Central Steering Committee for Flood and Storm Prevention and Control (CFSPC).

Of those, one death and one missing were reported in Ha Tinh province while the other missing was in Thua Thien-Hue province.

Heavy rains fell in Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces with an average rainfall of between 600-700mm.

By October 17, 143 communes of Ha Tinh province’s 12 districts and towns and nearly 13,800 households in Tuyen Hoa, Minh Hoa, Le Thuy and Quang Ninh districts in Quang Binh province were submerged.

Floods also inundated the central region’s life-line roads, including National Roads 1A and 15A, and Ho Chi Minh Road , causing congestions along the north-south route.

In order to mitigate the consequences of rains and floods, the CFSPC has asked central provinces to mobilise all resources and forces to rescue people in flooded areas, provide them with food, drinking water and other necessities as well as continue searching for missing people.

On October 17, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung sent an urgent dispatch requesting the Ministry of Finance to provide emergency aid for two hardest-hit Quang Binh and Ha Tinh provinces, each 100 billion VND.

The National Reserve Department was asked to grant 1,000 tonnes of rice to each of the two provinces.

Floods on rivers from Nghe An to Ha Tinh are forecast to continue rising and water levels on rivers in Quang Binh province will remain high in the coming days./.

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Vietnam rescues 10 missing in tropical storm

The fishermen are brought to hospital after being rescued on August 25, 2010.

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Rescuers in the central city of Danang late Wednesday found 10 crew of a fishing boat that went missing while seeking shelter from typhoon Mindulle two days ago.

Seven of the 10 fishermen, who drifted on the sea for around 50 hours, were brought home the same day. The rest are being treated on Cu Lao Cham (Cham Islands) in the neighboring province of Quang Nam.

Duong De Dung, chief of Danang Border Police Department, said professional rescue forces had searched for the missing fishermen in two days, but to no avail.

“Everything seemed hopeless,” Dung said. “Many families ashore set up the altars for praying.”

But the crew members of a fishing boat owned by a resident in Danang on Wednesday found a floating body when they were on their searching mission.

When the boat approached the man, they found a total seven men drifting on the waters in critical conditions.

Another fishing boat found other three fishermen floating in a shattered bamboo basket.

The exhausted, thirsty and trembling fishermen said they were saved by life jackets as the storm broke their ship.

The national floods and storms control committee says tropical storm Mindulle also killed nine and injured 58 others when it slammed the north-central coast on Tuesday.

The committee says the storm sank 35 boats and damaged around 32,000 houses.

The third tropical storm of the year made landfall Tuesday afternoon in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces.

A disaster official of Nghe An said strong winds knocked down many trees and blew off roofs of houses in the city of Vinh, the capital of the province. An estimated 74,000 people live in the high-risk coastal areas evacuated before the storm, he said.

In Ha Tinh province, south of Nghe An, officials said more than 14,000 people from coastal villages had been evacuated.

Floods have submerged 24,960 hectares of rice fields in the provinces.

Landslides have caused hours of traffic congestion in Quang Binh and Thua Thien-Hue.

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Cao Duc Phat has issued instructions that require local officials to continue searching for the missing; support the families victims and help their communities deal with the storm's consequences.

They must quickly resolve electricity, communications and transport difficulties and continue to monitor the storm's progress.

Mindulle has weakened into a tropical low that is forecast to continue generating rains in central provinces from Nghe An to Thanh Hoa and the northern delta.

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Three missing after Red River barge crash

HA NOI — The captain of a barge, his wife and their three-year-old daughter have been missing since Monday evening after their barge crashed into Duong Bridge in Ha Noi.

The barge was reported to be trying to avoid another barge on the fast-flowing river at the time.

The only other person on board the vessel, the navigator, managed to escape.

The barge was carrying 300 tonnes of sand from northern Phu Tho Province to Hai Phong.

Ha Noi waterway police mobilised search teams, but no trace has been found of the victims.

Last month, two barges loaded with 500 tonnes of cargo each crashed into the temporary pontoon bridge that has been in place since June while the Duong Bridge undergoes repairs.

More shade trees for city streets planned

HA NOI — Ha Noi and HCM City will grow more shade trees along streets, especially near where vehicles stop for traffic lights.

Relevant authorities have been asked to make surveys and map the trees' positions.

The move follows an initiative by HCM-based Tieu Diem Communication Company director Nguyen Thien. — VNS

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