At least 40,000 people have fled flooding across Cambodia and authorities reported at least four dead as they scrambled to obtain information from remote areas on the extent of the damage Friday, according to dpa. Heavy rains across the country combined with flash flooding have cut highways and forced residents to leave newly planted rice fields and run for higher ground, according to Keo Vy, secretary to National Disaster Committee deputy chief, Nhim Vanda. "The situation has eased a little in some areas from two days ago, but we are still getting many reports of people needing assistance and crops lost and roads washed away," he said. In the country's south, Kampong Speu authorities reported two people drowned, including a 14-year-old boy, and in nearby Kampot province, a 25-year-old woman and a man, 50, were confirmed dead but authorities feared they would not be the last fatalities as rain continued to pour down. Vy said that floods have displaced 30,000 people in Kampot as rivers continued to swell. The situation in the remote northeastern provinces of Ratanakirri and Mondulkiri was also bad, but authorities were having difficulty collating information from the cut off areas. The country's only deepwater seaport in Sihanoukville also remained cut off to container trucks after National Route 4 was hit by two-metre-high floodwaters from nearby mountains, he added. Vy said the northern province of Preah Vihear on the Thai border was not accessible from the Cambodian side after a 25-metre bridge collapsed in neighboring Kampong Thom. Phnom Penh was also bracing for floods by shoring up dykes around its outlying areas with sandbags. Police in Ang Snoul, just outside the capital, said they were using boats to rescue people stranded by the heavy monsoon rains. Cambodia's annual wet season is not scheduled to end until November.
