Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung together with a government task force on Saturday visited Quang Binh, the worst-hit central province in the pounding flood beginning early October.

HCMC Party Committee secretary Nguyen Thi Thu Ha gives VND2 billion donated by the city Party, authorities and people to flood-hit residents in Quang Binh Province on Saturday.

As of now, Quang Binh recorded 42 people dead, 17 missing and 45 injured and suffered a total damage of VND1,300 billion (US$66 million).

On the behalf of the party and state, PM Dung sent condolences to local residents, especially mourning families, in Duy Ninh Commune of Quang Trach, one of the districts badly pummeled by the deluge.

The party and state had sought all measures to help people soon overcome consequences of the flood and stabilize their lives, he stressed.

PM Dung ordered local and provincial authorities to urgently seek for the 17 missing people, assist affected families, epically those with dead relatives. All resources should be mobilized to help residents repair homes and ensure no one in starvation.

In addition, the province should not only revamp welfare works, schools, and health clinics but also prepare seeds and sapling as well as fertilizer for the coming autumn-winter and winter-spring crops, PM Dung said.

He also instructed the province’s health sector to clean the environment to preclude an outbreak of intestinal and respiratory diseases and others.

Finally, PM Dung advised Quang Binh as well as other provinces in the country to build specific measures to cope with climate changes and minimize natural disasters-caused damage on human and properties.

The same day, Ho Chi Minh City deputy Party Committee secretary Nguyen Thi Thu Ha led a delegation to visit people in flood-battered Quang Binh.

Ms. Ha, representative for the city Party Committee, authorities and residents, encouraged local officials and residents to overcome the lurch and gave them VND2 billion (US$103,000).

A delegation of outstanding overseas Vietnamese, returning the country for the 1000th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi, collected over VND400 million (US$21,000) for relief work in the central region, the State Committee of Overseas Vietnamese said Saturday.
 
In related news, the North-South Railway, section through Quang Binh Province, was reopened for traffic again on Saturday morning after five days of gridlock.

Earlier, over 1,000 officials and workers of the province\'s railway industry had run around the clock to repair landslide sections of the track. The trains SE1, SE2, and SE6 left Dong Hoi Railway Station with 1,500 passengers on October 9.

From October 5-8, over 6,000 passengers on the trains SE2, SE4, TN2, stuck at Dong Hoi station, returned the train tickets they bought to continue their trips by road.