A woman sits in a makeshift shelter on a dyke in Zia Lac commune in Ninh Binh province on Oct. 9. At least 86 are dead or missing in the wake of Typhoon Lekima, the worst such storm to hit Vietnam in two decades. REUTERS / Joe Lowry / International Federation of Red Cross / Handout (VIETNAM)

Some 82 people are dead and nine are missing, 9,500 houses were decimated, and more than 130,000 other structures were damaged, according to the Central Committee for Flood and Storm Control.

Most heavily affected areas include the north-central provinces of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An, where casualties and property losses are especially high, including 37,000 acres of destroyed rice crops. In Thanh Hoa, many flooded areas remain inaccessible.

World Vision to Assist Hardest-Hit Province

Six World Vision program areas — Ba Thuoc, Cam Thuy North, Thuong Xuan, Quan Hoa, Quan Son, and Tram Tau — also are affected.

We have committed relief assistance to the particularly hard-hit Cam Thuy area of Thanh Hoa province, reports Le Van Duong, World Vision's relief and disaster mitigation coordinator in Vietnam.

"The assistance will include the provision of food aid, schoolbooks, family kits, seeds, and repair of collapsed houses," says Duong, adding that staff members also have worked with local partners in other disaster-stricken areas to assess damages and determine survivors' emergency relief needs.

Widespread Damage

Preliminary estimates indicate the effects of Typhoon Lekima — the fifth such major storm to batter the Southeast Asian nation this year — has caused an estimated $41 million in damages.

This year's unusually severe monsoon season has also wreaked havoc in India, Bangladesh, China, and North Korea, where widespread flooding wiped out crops and contaminated the water supply for tens of thousands of people.

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