Vietnam: Typhoon Doksuri batters central Vietnam, killing 4

Associated Press Yahoo News 15 Sep 17;

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Typhoon Doksuri slammed into central Vietnam on Friday, killing four people and injuring 10 others as heavy rains and strong winds ripped off roofs and knocked over many electricity poles.

Blackouts were widespread and technicians tried to restore power. Flooding was reported in some villages.

Packing maximum sustained winds of 135 kilometers (84 miles) per hour, the typhoon made landfall in Ha Tinh province, pounding six coastal districts and destroying the roofs of 62,500 houses, disaster official Ngo Duc Hoi said.

In the neighboring province of Quang Binh, farther south, a man fell to his death when he tried to reinforce his house and an elderly man fell to the ground in his yard and died of head injuries, said disaster official Nguyen Duc Toan. 10 other people were injured by falling trees or debris, he added. Another 50,000 homes were damaged.

Disaster official Tran Xuan Binh in Nghe An province, north of Ha Tinh, said an 83-year-old woman died after being hit by falling debris, while in Thua Thien Hue province, south of Quang Binh, a man was swept away and died in a swollen river.

The typhoon had gusts of up to 185 kph (115 mph).

Doksuri swept through the Philippines on Tuesday as a less powerful tropical depression, killing at least four people and leaving another six missing.

The Vietnam Disaster Management Authority said as of early Friday, 79,000 villagers in high risk areas in five central provinces had been evacuated and another 210,000 were to be moved to safety ahead of the typhoon.

Forecasters also warned of flash floods and landslides in some parts of the country's northern and central regions. The typhoon was expected to weaken before dissipating in northern Laos early Saturday.

Vietnam, a country of 93 million people, is prone to floods and storms that kill hundreds of people each year.


Typhoon tears across Vietnam, skirting key coffee region
Kham Nguyen and Minh Nguyen Reuters Yahoo News 15 Sep 17;

HA TINH, Vietnam (Reuters) - A typhoon tore a destructive path across central Vietnam on Friday, flooding hundreds of thousands of homes, whipping off roofs and knocking out power in the country's most powerful storm in years.

Four people were killed, more than 5,000 houses were submerged, 19 collapsed and nearly 24,000 houses in Ha Tinh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue provinces were damaged, the disaster agency said in a report.

Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces bore the brunt of Typhoon Doksuri and power cuts were widespread after winds brought down or damaged thousands of electricity poles, trees and billboards. A television tower in Ha Tinh province collapsed.

"There has never been a storm of level nine or 11 that lasted for eight hours straight like this one, causing quite large damage," agriculture minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong told state-run Vietnam Television.

More than 116,000 people had been evacuated from Vietnam's densely populated coastal strip in preparation for Doksuri. Winds exceeded 130 km (80 miles) per hour and were expected to weaken as the storm heads to Laos.

"It looks terrible, worse than war time," said Tran Thi Hong, principal of the Ky Xuan kindergarten in Ha Tinh province, which lost its entire roof. "I could just cry, it took us so long to build this school," she said.

Four fishing boats sank in Quang Ngai province, the disaster committee report said. Many fishermen had dragged their small wooden boats into the streets of coastal towns to try to stop them from being carried away.

Around 40 flights were canceled between the capital, Hanoi, in northern Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh City, the commercial hub in the south.

The eye of the storm skirted Vietnam's most important coffee growing areas and the rains it brought were largely seen as beneficial to the trees, coffee traders said. Rice farmers had rushed to gather in what they could before Doksuri struck.

Vietnam often suffers from destructive storms. Floods in northern Vietnam killed at least 26 people and washed away hundreds of homes in August. Last year, more than 200 people were killed in storms.

(Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen and Mi Nguyen; Writing by Matthew Tostevin; Editing by Nick Macfie)