Flood relief distribution in Cambodia ends, all evacuees return home

Cambodia had completed the distribution of flood relief items to all the flood-stricken families, and all the flood evacuees had returned home after the floods totally subsided, a senior disaster official said Saturday. "The distribution of the emergency relief goods to the victims is over--all 350,000 affected families with some 1.47 million people had received the items," Keo Vy, cabinet chief and spokesman for the National Committee for Disaster Management, told Xinhua. "Whilst all the 51,000 families who had been evacuated to higher grounds since August have returned home." "Life returns normal now and the floods have entirely dried," he said. Cambodia has suffered the worst flooding in more than a decade since August and 18 cities and provinces have been submerged. At least 250 people were killed by the floods. According to the reports of the National Committee for Disaster Management, the floods cost the country about 521 million U.S. dollars, mainly the damages of rice paddies and roads. During the flood period, a number of foreign countries and charitable organizations including Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, the United States, France, Australia and Myanmar as well as the United Nations agencies and Asian Development Bank had provided flood relief assistance to the country.