HANOI, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Floods which hit Vietnam's central region from Oct. 29 to Nov. 5 killed 42 people and left six others missing, according to the Central Steering Committee for Flood andStorm Prevention on Monday.

    Thua Thien Hue province suffered the biggest human loss with 11deaths, followed by the provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai with8 each, Phu Yen province with 7, and Binh Dinh with 3.

    Flooding also inundated at least 70,000 houses and many irrigation works, and isolated some areas in the region, said the committee.

    Vietnam is actively preparing to cope with typhoon Peipah, which crossed the Philippines island of Luzon on early Monday. The typhoon is forecast to trigger torrential rains in Vietnam's central region.

    Natural disasters, including typhoons and hails, killed 339 people in Vietnam, left 274 persons missing, and injured 2,065 others in 2006. The estimated losses totaled 18.6 trillion Vietnamese dong (nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars) in the year.