On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his government to provide Vietnam with US$5 million to help storm-battered localities deal with the aftermath of Typhoon Damrey.
Upon discussing with the Russian Prime Minister, Putin decided to earmark US$5 million in humanitarian aid after learning about Typhoon Damrey's devastation in Vietnam’s south-central provinces, according to VnExpress.
Zing reports that at midnight on November 9, a Russian cargo plane landed in Khanh Hoa Province's Cam Ranh Airport with 40 tons of humanitarian assistance including tents, food, and power generators.
On Saturday, Typhoon Damrey raged across several provinces in central Vietnam, causing widespread flooding, destruction, and power disruption.
At the time of writing, authorities estimate that death tolls from the storm have risen to 106 with 25 people still missing. Damrey also destroyed more than 1,300 houses, damaged nearly 115,000 houses and sunk or damaged nearly 1,300 fishing boats. More than 100,000 homes are still underwater and local reservoirs are nearing capacity while heavy rain continues to pelt some provinces.
The storm made landfall the weekend before this week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit (APEC) in Da Nang. Attendees to the annual event include Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping, among other world leaders.
While Da Nang has avoided the worst of the storm, heavy rain has still flooded nearly 11,000 houses and caused approximately VND44 billion (US$1.94 million) in damage. Reuters reports that the storm will cause no disruption to the scheduled meetings.
In addition to the humanitarian aid, Putin shared his hope that other countries attending the Summit in Vietnam will also show solidarity with the Vietnamese people.
Recently, the Japanese government also announced that it will donate 105 water filtering systems to residents in Quang Nam and Thua Thien-Hue provinces to help them get back on their feet after the bouts of flooding recently.
[Photo via Tuoi Tre]
