Troops search for survivors as flood waters recede after Laos dam disaster
The scale of the disaster remains unclear, with contradictory death tolls and other information emerging from state-controlled media
Sanamxai — Troops searched for survivors in the remote southern tip of Laos on Thursday, three days after the collapse of a hydropower dam sent a torrent of water across paddy fields and through villages, as rescuers rushed aid to thousands of homeless. The scale of the disaster was still unclear, in part because of the inaccessibility of the area but also because reports from the communist country’s state media have been scant and sketchy. The official Laos News Agency said 26 people were confirmed dead and more than 130 were missing following the failure of the dam on Monday, a subsidiary structure under construction as part of a hydroelectric project. The Vientiane Times reported on Wednesday that more than 3,000 were awaiting rescue from swirling floodwaters. But on Thursday, the newspaper cited Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith as saying that only one person had been found dead, and all those who sought shelter on trees and the rooftops of submerged houses had been plucked to ...
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