At least five people have died in Vietnam after Typhoon Kalmaegi slammed coastal areas with strong winds and heavy rain, authorities said on Friday.
The storm had previously devastated the Philippines, killing at least 188 people.
According to Reuters, Kalmaegi made landfall in central Vietnam on Thursday night, toppling trees, damaging homes and knocking out power before weakening inland.
Authorities warned that some central provinces, from Thanh Hoa to Quang Tri, could see up to 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain, while rising river levels from Hue to Dak Lak could cause flooding and landslides.
In Gia Lai province, shrimp farmer Nguyen Dinh Sa suffered serious losses. “Yesterday I went to check on them every hour until the afternoon. I had done everything but I couldn’t save them,” said Sa, 26.
“All my investments are gone. I’m very desperate right now,” he said.
Its two-story warehouse, used to store shrimp feed, was briefly submerged when seven-meter waves and strong winds hit the area, causing an estimated loss of around one billion dong ($37,959).
In coastal cities, the typhoon left a trail of debris: fallen trees, broken windows and damaged roofs. Residents gathered around generators to charge their phones and share updates.
Vietnam’s disaster management agency said seven people were injured and around 2,800 homes were damaged. Around 1.3 million people suffered power outages and parts of Quang Ngai province suffered damage to railway infrastructure.
The government deployed more than 268,000 troops for rescue operations and issued warnings about possible flooding that could damage crops in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s main coffee-growing region. Traders said the rains had eased and the coffee trees were not affected.
In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. visited evacuation centers on Friday, distributing relief materials and promising continued government aid after Kalmaegi left 135 people missing and injured 96 others.
“We are very, very sorry,” he told provincial officials. “Most of the victims were swept away by the strong waters, large volume and speed of the flash floods.”
Kalmaegi is the 13th typhoon to form in the South China Sea this year. Both Vietnam and the Philippines are frequently hit by tropical storms due to their position along the Pacific typhoon belt, Reuters reports.
Scientists warn that storms like Kalmaegi are becoming stronger as global temperatures rise. The Philippines’ civil aviation regulator has put airports on alert because another storm, Fung-wong, is expected to intensify into a super typhoon before hitting the country’s north late Sunday or early Monday.
(Reuters)
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