It is difficult to tell where the rice fields end and the river begins.
From a Vietnamese army helicopter above Quang Nam province in central Vietnam on a mercy mission for victims of Typhoon Ketsana, brown flood waters tell the story of the disaster.
Many houses are surrounded by a sea of water that submerges two-thirds of the ground floors. There are no signs of life. There is no more road access. No boats are visible either.
Ketsana hit Vietnam on Tuesday after devastating the Philippines, where it killed at least 277 people.
The death toll in Vietnam rose to 86 on Thursday, an official said. Across the central region there were 16 people missing and 124 injured.
On the main North-South National Highway One, a line of trucks stretches for kilometres (miles), unable to move further south into the disaster zone. The black asphalt of the road contrasts with the brown water on either side.
Closer to Danang city, where the helicopter lifted off on a sunny morning, the ground is dryer and there are signs of normal life two days after Ketsana made landfall near Quang Nam province, driving close to 200,000 from their homes ahead of its path.
Residents of Quang Nam who decided to stay have told AFP they are still living in their water-logged houses, where the only way in and out is by boat. They complained government aid is too slow in coming while they fend for themselves.
A senior military officer said relief flights have been increased, with seven expected on Thursday after four the previous day.
The Mi-8 helicopter is loaded with more than 350 cardboard boxes of instant noodles for the needy somewhere in the surrounding districts.
It touches down in the middle of a road in Tam Ky, a town about 50 kilometres south of Danang, where more than two dozen soldiers load the noodles onto a military truck.
They will be put onto boats and taken to people cut off by the floodwaters, soldiers said.
"It's very difficult to describe my feelings," an air force colonel says over the noise of the aircraft. "We give them the goods and then we have to go away."
Vietnam suffers annually from tropical storms and typhoons, but this year's toll exceeds the deaths when Tropical Storm Durian killed at least 70 in the country's south and Typhoon Xangsane left more than 70 dead in central Vietnam, both in 2006.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
