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Hundreds of people found shelter in nearby towns, traveling by bus and van and sleeping on plastic. "The water came so fast that we left the house and we ran away," said Phon Vuongchonpu, whose family of 12 people fled while the floodwater rose to the ground. At the roof level. "We lost everything: the bike, the furniture of our cows and pigs."
Bounyong Phommachak, a Red Cross official, said that 24 bodies had been found and that 96 people were officially missing. He said on the phone that about 6,600 people had been displaced from their homes.
Photos and videos posted on social networks showed people sitting on the roofs to escape from the water, while others were being transported to sea.
One of the The project's five earthen dams began visibly weakening on Friday, said Korea Western Power, one of South Korea's two hydroelectric project partners.
SK Engineering & Construction, the other Korean partner The dam summit was swept away Sunday as workers struggled to control the damage amid heavy rains. The situation worsened on Monday as water poured out of the reservoir, flooding seven of the 12 villages in the area, SK E & C said. It helped evacuate and rescue the residents. and sending its president and a team of 30 people to the disaster zone
The heavy rains and strong winds expected in the region could hinder relief efforts and floods persisted in the mountainous region. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Commission of the Mekong River, the storms caused a rise of 3 to 5 meters in water levels along the river last week.
Provincial authorities appealed for emergency assistance. "I feel safe here, but I worry about my husband and son who are still in the village," said Tem Namsakhunpiraded, who escaped the floods. with three of his children and a grandchild of six months.
The International Red Cross said food was a source of concern because village food stores were flooded. It provided for the dispatch of water purification units in the region to ensure the supply of drinking water.
The presidential office in South Korea said that President Moon Jae-in had ordered an emergency relief team to help. The $ 1.02 billion project involving several river basins in a remote corner of southeastern Laos is the first hydroelectric dam to be built by a South Korean company, and it is unclear how serious the damage would be for the overall plan. The dam was to come into service in 2019, with 90% of the electricity produced in Thailand
Shares of affiliates at SK E & C sank Wednesday due to potential costs of compensation and others financial fallout from the disaster. 19659019] Laos has dozens of hydropower projects under construction and plans to sell electricity to neighboring countries, which now account for about a third of its exports, but to build dams along the border. Mekong and its tributaries, including
International Rivers, a non-governmental group generally critical of these projects, said that the disaster had shown the need to improve the systems of life. alert
"With more than 70 hydropower projects currently being built, under construction and planned across the Lao People's Democratic Republic – most of them owned and operated by private companies – the authorities must immediately
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Associate press editors Tong-hyung Kim and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report
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