Millions in SE Asia battle floods, death toll passes 200

Millions of people across Southeast Asia struggled yesterday with flooded homes, power cuts and wrecked infrastructure after Typhoon Yagi swept through the region, as the death toll passed 200.

In worst-hit Vietnam, the fatalities rose to 197, with nine confirmed dead in northern Thailand, where one district is suffering its worst floods in 80 years.

Yagi brought a colossal deluge of rain that has inundated a swathe of northern Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, triggering deadly landslides and widespread river flooding.

One farmer on the edge of Hanoi told AFP his entire 1,800 square meter peach blossom plantation was submerged, destroying all 400 of his trees.

"It will be so hard for me to recover from this loss, I think I will lose up to $40,000 this season," said the farmer, who gave his name only as Tu.

"I really don't know what to do now, I'm just waiting for the water to recede."

The United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) said the typhoon had damaged more than 140,000 homes across 26 provinces in Vietnam.

The high waters have devastated more than 250,000 hectares of crops and huge numbers of livestock, Vietnam's Agriculture Ministry said, with farmland around Hanoi hit hard.

Thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes, while others are struggling with power cuts.

In the deadliest single incident, a landslide in Lao Cai province annihilated an entire village of 37 houses, killing at least 42 people with 53 still unaccounted for.

Myanmar's junta government has set up around 50 camps, anticipating that some 70,000 people could be affected by the floods, Lay Shwe Zin Oo, director of the social welfare, relief and resettlement ministry told AFP.

No casualty numbers or...