The province also accounts for most of the injured people – 20 out of 66.

Phu Yen authorities have said their uppermost concern is that thousands of people are facing starvation as their houses are deep under water, and traffic conditions have made it difficult to provide relief.

The National Committee for Search and Rescue responded by sending three helicopters to support the province in rescue and relief operations on Wednesday.

The provinces of Binh Dinh, Quang Ngai and Dak Lak have reported significant losses from damaged houses, flooded farms, landslides, and broken dykes and bridges.

Vietnam Airlines has meanwhile restored flights to the central region and added another four to Nha Trang town, Le Hoang Dung, spokesman for the national carrier said.

On Monday the airlines had canceled 34 flights to the storm-hit areas.

The Prime Minister has decided to allocate 10,000 tons of rice and VND225 billion (US$12.6 million) from the state budget to the affected provinces, local newswire Voice of Vietnam News reported on Thursday

United Nations relief officials in Vietnam are working with the government to assess post Miranae needs.

Dam release worsens floods

In a recent interview with Tuoi Tre, Vo Van Tri, director general of Ba Ha River Hydropower Joint-stock company, said due to its design failings, the reservoir upstream Phu Yen’s river released water on Monday and Tuesday in great volumes, worsening floods.

“How can the reservoir contain and control floods while its capacity is 349.7 million cubic meters,” he said in response to recent criticism of the bad timing of water release.

Tri said the project consultant had advised a reservoir that could hold between 800 million and one billion cubic meters, but this was not possible because of objections by adjacent province Gia Lai.

“To have a capacity of one billion cubic meters, we need to acquire another large area of production land in Gia Lai’s Krong Pa district,” the director explained.

“They objected and a reservoir of such small capacity was built as a last resort.”

Tri also blamed poor cooperation among five hydropower plants on the river for forcing his company to release water during floods.

He said the reservoir was the lowest of five built on a steps system, but they never received announcements about water release from reservoirs further upstream.

Tri said on Monday they discharged water at 800-1,000 cubic meters per second, and increased it to 14,450 cubic meters per second on Tuesday evening.

The flow was kept the same for the next eight hours, and was only decreased to 9,000 on Wednesday afternoon, he added.

The water discharge over the past few days was a last resort action to ensure the reservoir’s safety, Tri said, noting that the consequences would be worse if the reservoir was broken.

In a similar case, the A Vuong Hydroelectric Plant in the central province of Quang Nam has also been criticized for releasing water in great amounts during floods brought by typhoon Ketsana late September without any warning,.

The ninth storm to hit the East Sea, Ketsana killed 163 people and caused property damage of over VND14 trillion (US$785.85 million).

Source: Thanh Nien, Tuoi Tre