'Linda' kills 130, leaves hundreds missing in Vietnam
'Linda' kills 130, leaves hundreds missing in Vietnam
HANOI (Reuters): At least 130 people were killed and hundreds of fishermen missing after a typhoon lashed Vietnam's southern coast, provincial officials said yesterday.
Thousands were left homeless by Typhoon Linda, with the Vietnamese provinces of Ca Mau, Kien Giang and Ben Tre the hardest hit.
Linda also killed two people and injured two along Thailand's southern coast Monday night as it moved toward Bangladesh, but it lost some of its power and was downgraded to a tropical storm, Thai government officials reported.
Some 1,800 boats foundered or disappeared as Linda whipped through Vietnamese coastal provinces Sunday with 100-km (63-mile) per hour winds, officials said. About 2,000 fishermen may have been aboard the boats, they added.
At the port of Con Dao Island, where waves up to 15 meters high were reported, a total of 160 vessels sank. One stricken vessel spilled 80,000 liters of diesel oil.
Two naval vessels were sent to the island to rescue fishermen, but one sank on the way.
Rescue teams were searching affected areas for survivors and trying to get a full count of the dead and injured.
Described by the official media as the most severe storm to hit Vietnam for more than 100 years, Linda also left a trail of devastation on land. Figures from various provinces showed more than 20,000 houses had been destroyed by the high winds and 45,900 hectares of rice fields were flooded.
A rice trader said losses would be limited because harvesting of the summer-autumn crop had been completed in much of the affected areas.
Coffee crops, mostly further north in the central highland provinces, were not harmed, although traders said coffee-growing areas near Ho Chi Minh City had heavy rain.
Residents of Thailand's southern coastal regions were warned Monday to move out of flood-prone areas in Linda's path but damage to property and crops was relatively limited, Thai officials said.
The storm triggered flash floods in some areas before heading to the Andaman Sea, striking Myanmar early yesterday as it headed for Bangladesh.
The hardest hit areas in Thailand were the upper southern provinces such as Prachuab Khirikhan and Chumporn. Officials said rubber and coffee plantations in the two areas, as well as orchards, were devastated.
About 10 fishing trawlers sank while thousands of villagers were evacuated from flood-prone areas, the officials said.
Other parts of southern Thailand were not badly affected. Industry sources said rubber plantations and shrimp farms in most parts of the south were safe.
"There was heavy rain in some areas along the eastern coast of the south. That might hamper some tapping in the near-term. But (there was) no substantial damage," said one industry source.