Published: Friday November 11, 2011 MYT 10:37:00 AM

About 1,000 people died in Southeast Asia floods: UN

NEW YORK: Nearly 1,000 people died in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and other Southeastern Asian countries in the past four months as a result of prolonged monsoon flooding, typhoons and storms, the United Nations Office for Coordiation of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said.

Its spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters on Thursday that the torrential rains and overflowing rivers had affected an estimated nine million people, reported China's Xinhua news agency.

In Thailand, at total of 529 people were confirmed dead and two others missing in the worst floods in more than five decades, the Thai Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department said.

Damage to property and assets from the floods that have inundated the upper part of the country for almost three months ranges between US$23bil and US$33bil, according to the latest estimate by the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

Up to 300,000 people in Thailand will be unemployed because of business disruption and as many as 700,000 temporarily jobless, reports said.

In Vietnam, at least 22 people were killed by continual heavy rains in recent days causing large-scale floods, the local Storm and Flood Control Center said on Wednesday.

While, in Cambodia, flash floods since August killed at least 150 people and damaged 670,000 acres (271,000 ha) of rice fields, as well as 904 schools and 361 Buddhist temples. - Bernama

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