By Dean Yates
HANOI, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Vietnam's worst floods in years killed at least 100 people on Wednesday, isolating several central provinces and damaging hundreds of thousands of homes, government officials said.
Hundreds of people could be dead, they said. Relief workers warned of grave food shortages. State media put the actual death toll at between 100 and 120.
"The rain is continuing. The situation is extremely serious and could worsen," Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Le Huy Ngo said in an interview with state-run Vietnam Television (VTV) late on Wednesday.
AIR, LAND AND SEA LINKS SEVERED
Ngo, speaking from central Danang city, said floodwaters triggered by three days of rain had severed all air, land and sea links to a number of central coastal provinces.
The army had used amphibious tanks and helicopters to evacuate people, he added.
Vietnam's central coastal provinces lie well north of the country's key coffee region and main rice fields, which have both nevertheless been hit by lingering wet season showers.
A weather bulletin broadcast on VTV for central Vietnam said heavy rains would continue, while the flood situation would remain unpredictable. VTV said 100 cm (39 inches) of rain had fallen on parts of Quang Tri province alone on Wednesday.
It was unclear how many people had been affected by the floods, but the region is home to some seven million people.
John Geoghegan, head of delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Vietnam, said damage in the region was extensive and that an overseas appeal for $1-$2 million in aid would soon be launched.
Geoghegan said food and fresh water shortages could worsen, especially as the forecast was for more rain in flooded central coastal areas that officials said stretched for some 500 km (300 miles) from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai provinces.
"Hundreds of families are sitting on roofs (in Hue city) waiting for assistance," Geoghegan said. "It's likely the food situation could become grave."
PACKED TRAINS STRANDED BY FLOODWATERS
National Highway One linking Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, along with many parts of the north-south railway, had been cut in several provinces, local officials said.
Three north-south trains carrying a total of 1,000 people had been stranded somewhere in Quang Binh province since Tuesday night, a local official said.
The government said in a published telegram that flooding in the former imperial capital of Hue, a popular tourist destination, was the highest seen in 40 years. Hue is home to around one million people.
Television pictures from Hue showed motorboats carrying rescue officials along the streets.
Funds had been released by the Vietnam Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to buy food and plastic sheeting, Geoghegan said.