HANOI (Reuters) -- Floods and torrential rains have killed at least 19 people and marooned thousands of families in central Vietnam, officials said on Saturday.

The severe weather also destroyed about 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres) of crops in the two hardest hit provinces of Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai in central Vietnam, officials from natural disaster control offices in the two provinces told Reuters.

"The situation is very serious," said Nguyen Huu Hong, director of the Natural Disaster Control and Dike Management Department in Quang Ngai Province, around 890km (550 miles) south of the capital Hanoi.

Hong said at least 10 people had been confirmed dead and dozens critically injured by landslides and floods.

Thousands of soldiers have been mobilized to evacuate nearly 40,000 people to higher ground from inundated areas in Quang Ngai where around 20,000 houses remain submerged, officials said. Some villages in the coastal town of Binh Son district in the province could not be reached for lack of boats, officials said.

In neighboring Binh Dinh Province, preliminary reports from disaster control stations showed at least seven deaths as of Saturday morning.

Flood-related incidents also killed one person in neighboring Quang Nam Province and another in Thua Thien Hue.

Officials in Binh Dinh said floods had receded as of Saturday morning but advised against traveling in the area as heavy rains were forecast to continue in the next two days.