Dozens dead as typhoon slams Vietnam

Residents wade with their pig in floodwaters brought on by Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, in Binan Laguna south of Manila yesterday. Reuters

HANOI, Vietnam: Typhoon Ketsana roared into central Vietnam yesterday, killing at least 32 people as it brought flooding and winds of up to 144 kph, disaster officials said. Some 170,000 were evacuated from its path.

Ketsana left more than 280 dead across the northern Philippines as a weaker tropical storm.

After gathering strength over the South China Sea, the typhoon made landfall in mid-afternoon, about 60 km south of Danang, according to the National Weather Center.

Two people in Quang Nam province were killed by falling trees, and another died when struck by a power line, said Nguyen Minh Tuan, a provincial disaster official.

"The rivers are rising and many homes are flooded, and several mountainous districts have been isolated by mudslides," Tuan said.

Quang Nam is the home of the ancient city of Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Authorities evacuated 170,000 people from six central provinces as the typhoon approached and heavy winds began lashing Vietnam's central coast in the morning, officials said.

"There's a blackout across our entire province," said Truong Ngoc Nhi, vice governor of Quang Ngai province, south of Danang. "Many streets are strewn with fallen trees and utility poles. It looks like a battlefield."

Vietnam Airlines canceled all flights to the tourist destinations of Danang and Hue.

Second storm

Meanwhile, Philippine authorities braced yesterday for another storm as the toll from rain and floods from a weekend typhoon rose to 246 dead and damages climbed to nearly $100 million.

Weather forecasters said a new storm forming in the Pacific Ocean is likely to enter Philippine waters tomorrow and make landfall later in the week on the northern island of Luzon, just like Saturday's Typhoon Ketsana.

Ketsana dumped more than a month's worth of average rainfall on Manila and surrounding areas in one 24-hour period. About 80 percent of the city of 15 million was flooded.

The Philippine government has come in for scathing criticism for its response to the disaster, with many calling it inadequate and delayed.

More than 1.9 million people were affected and 375,000 had abandoned their homes and taken refuge in evacuation centres.

More than 3,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed.

The death toll could rise further once reports come in from remote areas. The storm hit metropolitan Manila and 12 provinces. Dozens remained missing and feared dead, disaster officials said.

Authorities released water from two dams north of Manila, but stressed it was being done carefully to prevent any recurrence of floods.

Leftist rebels announced a unilateral ceasefire with government forces and ordered cadres to help in flood-relief operations.

Aid pours in

Private citizens and volunteer groups were collecting relief goods - mostly clothes, drinking water and medicines - and distributing them to victims. Many people have thrown open their homes to those who were forced to abandon theirs.

Several foreign governments and United Nations agencies have already pledged nearly $2 million in rice and relief supplies, the government said.

US soldiers deployed in the south of the country have been brought to Manila to help in relief, while the United Nations has announced it will give food aid and cash for medical supplies.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has called the typhoon "an extreme event that has strained our response capabilities to the limit."

"But it is not breaking us," she said in a statement on Monday, after opening the presidential palace for relief efforts.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime typhoon."

Schools in the capital region and nearby provinces will remain closed for the third day today because about 170 campuses are being used as shelter areas for more than 10,000 families. About 60 schools were also damaged by the floods.

3,000 people, 1 toilet

In Cainta, about 3,000 angry Philippine flood survivors queued for tinned fish and noodles while another line built for a single toilet at a gymnasium that was turned into an evacuation center.

On the concrete floor of the covered basketball court, bedraggled children wearing dirty clothes or barely anything at all lay on flattened cardboard cartons, sleeping side-by-side with dogs.

Their parents attempted to build fires with charcoal to cook their meager food rations.

Reuters - AFP

(China Daily 09/30/2009 page12)