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HANOI • Thousands of people have fled their homes in Vietnam as Typhoon Vamco rushed into the central regions of the country that have already been hit by weeks of successive storms.
Airports, beaches and a fishing ban have been closed as the country prepares for winds of up to 100km / h when the typhoon makes landfall today, likely near Hue.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in four central provinces, according to the disaster management authority yesterday, while state media said hundreds of thousands more may have to flee.
A series of storms have hit central Vietnam over the past six weeks, causing flooding and landslides that have killed at least 159 people, authorities said, while another 70 are missing.
Severe weather has also damaged or destroyed more than 400,000 homes, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Roads and bridges have been razed, power supplies disrupted and crucial food crops destroyed, leaving at least 150,000 people at immediate risk of food shortages, he added.
“There has been no respite for the more than eight million people living in central Vietnam,” said Vietnam Red Cross President Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu.
“Every time they start to rebuild their lives and their livelihoods, they are hit by another storm.”
Typhoon Vamco has already caused devastation in the Philippines. Emergency response teams were dispatched to northeastern regions yesterday, where more than 340,000 people were affected by the severe flooding that followed Vamco, killing at least 33 people across the country, disaster agencies said.
Twenty of the deaths were in the provinces of Cagayán, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya on the island of Luzon, which have become the focus of rescue efforts.
Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba said nine people were killed when massive floods and Vamco hit the province early last week. Among the victims was a rescuer who was electrocuted.
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> 400k
Number of homes in Vietnam damaged or destroyed due to a series of storms that have hit central parts of the country over the past six weeks, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
> 150k
Number of Vietnamese at immediate risk of food shortages from these storms.
> 340k
Number of people affected by Typhoon Vamco in the Northeast Philippines.
“No typhoon signal was generated in Cagayan due to Typhoon Ulysses, but the water discharged by the typhoon in Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Kalinga and Ifugao flowed into our province,” Mamba said, using the local name Vamco.
Hundreds of people were trapped on the roofs of the worst affected areas along the Cagayan River, and rescuers were unable to reach them due to the strong current, said the spokesman for the regional Civil Defense Office.
Vast swaths of the region were under water in what authorities described as the worst flood in living memory.
The release of water from the Magat dam in Luzon, home to Manila, has exacerbated the impact. The dam was forced to open seven gates to release water after reaching the level of spill caused by the rain from the typhoon.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday ordered the creation of an inter-institutional working group to expedite the government’s response to the regions affected by Vamco.
Meanwhile, China’s national observatory yesterday renewed a blue alert for Vamco, which is expected to bring downpours and high winds to parts of the country’s southern coastal areas, forcing Hainan province to suspend all ferry services in the Qiongzhou Strait.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER / ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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