01 October 2009

Vietnam, Cambodia clean up after deadly storms

HANOI - A massive clean up is continuing across Indochina after typhoon Ketsana left a destructive path through central Vietnam and Cambodia.

The storm destroyed or damaged nearly 170,000 homes and flattened crops in six Vietnamese provinces, officials said, while more than 350,000 people were evacuated from the typhoon's path.

The coastal resort town of Da Nang was hardest hit, with hundreds of people injured and thousands of homes destroyed. Flooding was also reported in the port town of Hoi An, another popular tourist spot.

Floodwaters rose and mudslides buried houses in Vietnam while storm winds flattened houses in Cambodia.

The storm, which first struck the Philippines on the weekend, killing 246 people and leaving 42 missing, cut through Vietnam and Cambodia as it made its way into Laos and Thailand.

Vietnamese government officials said it could confirm that 66 people were killed during the storm, some by landslides and some by falling trees.

Cambodian authorities put the death toll there at 11.
 

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• Typhoons an annual occurrence
  
  

  Typhoons that strike the central coastal region of VietNam are an annual occurrence between late August and early November striking the area between Hue, the former imperial city through to Hoi An, the ancient port town an area that includes Da Nang. Historically the merchant ships that frequented Hoi An used to spend this time at sea to avoid the damaging storms. The total killed has now reached 100. At the height of the storm 500 tourists were forced to spend s night on Hue station, as all hotels were filled, after heavy storm water saturated the rail bed making it unstable. Water levels reached as high as 5 feet in Hue, stopping all traffic other than large wheeled trucks and tractors. In Hoi An the water was deeper exceeding 11 feet in parts of the ancient town. Flying roof sheeting made venturing outside a deadly risk in Da Nang. The Vietnamese are resilient people and take these storms in their stride with fast cleanups making visitors welcome again.

  By J Hewson, Tuesday, October 6, 2009