VIENTIANE, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Two villagers were reportedly killed by flash flooding in northern Laos' Oudomxay province and many households severely impacted as heavy rain lashed multiple districts over the weekend, a senior provincial official said Sunday.
A heavy downpour from Friday midnight to Saturday morning caused a flash flood, paralyzing transport in Muang Xay, capital of the province, some 320 km north of Lao capital Vientiane.
Other districts affected by the floods included Nga and La districts, Director of Provincial Labor and Social Welfare Department Somfong Sengchanthala told Vientiane Times on Sunday.
"Xay district was most severely affected. It was the heaviest impact by such a flood in the nine years since 2009," Somfong said.
Soldiers, rescue teams and authorities from various sectors are deployed for relief operations, including cleaning up after the destruction and repairing public facilities.
"Almost all public facilities in Xay district, the electricity, roads and other facilities, have largely returned to their normal modes of operation," Somfong said on Sunday. "It was a flash flood impacting because of the mountainous terrain. The flood just lasted for a short period."
The flash flood reportedly killed two people, the director said.
One was a resident of the province's Xay district and the other a resident of Nga district. No further cases of injured or missing persons were reported so far.
Those whose houses were severally affected have taken shelter with their relatives or are staying in temporary shelters prepared by the local authorities.
The value of property lost to the natural disaster is still unknown, but it will be revealed once information collection is complete, said the report.
The mountainous-terrain Oudomxay province has been suffering from flooding incidents, notably in recent years.
In 2013, a storm-caused flash flood and landslide killed 17 villagers, damaged houses, infrastructure, agricultural plots and killed livestock.
