HO CHI MINH CITY, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Natural disasters, mainly typhoons, floods and landslides, left 185 people dead or missing, and 134 injured in Vietnam in the first 10 months of this year, its agriculture ministry said Tuesday.
In October alone, natural disasters, mostly floods, high tides and whirlwinds, killed two local people, injured five others, and caused property losses worth some 50 billion Vietnamese dong (nearly 2.2 million U.S. dollars).
Between January and October, the natural disasters destroyed nearly 1,900 houses, damaged 59,600 other houses, and affected over 172,000 hectares of paddy rice and other crops, leaving losses of more than 8,800 billion Vietnamese dong (382.6 million U.S. dollars).
In the last two decades, natural disasters in Vietnam left over 400 people dead or missing each year, while causing economic losses equal 1-1.5 percent of the country's gross domestic product, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
