Ketsana leaves more than 300 dead across SE Asia

MANILA – One of the most destructive storms in years extended its deadly path across Southeast Asia, blowing down wooden villages in Cambodia and crushing Vietnamese houses under mudslides after submerging much of the Philippine capital.

The death toll yesterday climbed past 300 and was rising.’We’re used to storms that sweep away one or two houses. But I’ve never seen a storm this strong,’ said Nam Tum, governor of Cambodia’s Kampong Thom province.The immediate threat was easing as Typhoon Ketsana was downgraded to a tropical depression as it crossed Wednesday into a fourth nation, Laos. But its powerful winds and pummeling rain left a snaking trail of destruction.Landslides triggered by the storm slammed into houses in central Vietnam on Tuesday, burying at least seven people including five members of the same family, the government said. They were among 52 people killed in the country, some by falling trees, officials said.The storm destroyed or damaged nearly 170 000 homes and flattened crops across six central Vietnamese provinces, officials said. More than 350 000 people were evacuated from the typhoon’s path, posing a logistical headache to shelter and feed them.’The scale of the devastation is stretching all of us,’ said Minnie Portales, a World Vision aid agency official in the Philippines. The agency said it was scrambling to assess the needs of victims in four countries, including the possibility that Laos would have damage.Parts of hard-hit Quang Nam province were cut off by floodwaters and fallen trees on roads, said local official Nguyen Hoai Phuong. World Vision said Quang Tri province was also unreachable.In neighboring Cambodia, at least 11 people were killed and 29 injured on Tuesday as the storm toppled dozens of rickety houses in Kampong Thom province, about 130 kilometres north of the capital, Phnom Penh.Five members of the same family died when the storm toppled their home as they ate dinner, said Neth Sophana of the Red Cross. Others were swept away by floodwaters.Authorities were searching for more victims and rushing food, medical supplies and plastic sheeting for temporary tents to storm-hit areas.Light rain was falling over some parts of the disaster zone yesterday, and most rivers had peaked in the morning and were starting to slowly recede, Vietnam’s National Weather Forecast Centre said.In the Philippines, Ketsana on Saturday triggered the worst flooding in 40 years. Officials said 2,3 million people had their homes swamped, and 400 000 were seeking help in relief centers.- Nampa-AP