Typhoon Xangsane Lashes Vietnam, Leaves Three Dead (Update3)
By Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen and Francisco Alcuaz Jr.
Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Typhoon storm Xangsane lashed Danang City and neighboring Quang Nam province this morning, destroying homes, roads, farms and boats and cutting power in central Vietnam. Three people were killed and 72 injured, Vietnam Television said.
Xangsane was 15 miles (24 kilometers) west of Danang and traveling further inland as fast as 12 miles per hour at 10 a.m. local time, Vietnam's Meteorological Office said on its Web site. Winds at the center ranged from 55 mph to 72 mph. It weakened on hitting land, prompting its downgrade to a severe tropical storm from a typhoon, Central Meteorological Office director Bui Minh Tang said. ``The storm's eye left Vietnam and entered Laos early this afternoon,'' he said in a telephone interview.
``Losses are big, but I'm afraid that there will be more and more losses,'' Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said on state TV from Danang, the nation's fourth-largest city.
Xangsane, which means elephant in Laotian, is the 18th storm of this year's Pacific cyclone season. Last year, about 50 people were killed when eight typhoons and tropical storms made landfall in Vietnam. Xangsane struck the Philippines three days ago, leaving at least 76 people dead, that country's Office of Civil Defense said today.
River Rising
Vietnam state TV showed flooded residential areas and rice fields and uprooted trees. It reported that parts of Ho Chi Minh highway, one of the main transportation arteries, had collapsed. About 4,000 people were cut off on an island off Quang Nam.
The Huong River was rising, threatening the ancient imperial capital of Hue, Nguyen Xuan Ly, chairman of the Hue People's Committee, said in a telephone interview. About 3,500 homes were destroyed or lost all or parts of their roofs.
Xangsane also ``seriously damaged'' Hoi An, a United Nations cultural heritage site, Ho Thi Thanh Lam, vice chairwoman of the Quang Nam People's Committee, said in a separate interview. The roofs of many houses were torn off and ``a lot of ships anchored at port have been broken because of the strong waves,'' Lam said.
More than 200,000 people were evacuated from Danang City and seven provinces, Van Phu Chinh, head of the flood and storm control committee for the central provinces, said in an interview.
Vietnam Airlines said some flights to Danang and other destinations in central Vietnam had been canceled. It planned to resume service between Hanoi in the north and Ho Chi Minh in the south at 2 p.m. local time.
To contact the reporters on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at
[email protected] ; Francisco Alcuaz Jr. in Manila at
[email protected]
Last Updated: October 1, 2006 04:42 EDT
