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(CNN) – Typhoon Molave made landfall just south of the Vietnamese resort city of Da Nang on Wednesday, hitting the coast with heavy rain and winds, and inflicting further misery on an area still reeling from widespread deadly floods.
Molave struck like the equivalent of a Category 2 Atlantic hurricane, with sustained winds of 165 kilometers per hour (103 miles per hour). The storm is expected to bring dangerous rain and winds as it moves over the mountains of Southeast Asia, causing potential flash floods and landslides.
“This is a very strong typhoon that will affect a large area,” Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said before the storm made landfall.
Some 310,000 homes have already been damaged by last week’s deadly floods, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the organization warned that about 1.2 million people were ” in grave danger and needed help. “
“At least 150,000 people are estimated to be at immediate risk of food shortages and hunger after thousands of hectares of crops have been destroyed,” the International Federation said last week.
Vietnamese authorities made plans to evacuate around 1.3 million people before Typhoon Molave hit, and the army mobilized around 250,000 soldiers and 2,300 vehicles to be used in search and rescue missions, the state agency reported for news from Vietnam.
Although October is part of Vietnam’s rainy season, the country has been inundated with more bad weather than usual. Molave is the fourth named storm system to make landfall in the country this month and the ninth this year, according to VNA.
Storms and a cold snap in early October caused flooding in Vietnam’s central cities and provinces, but the floods that struck last week were “some of the worst we’ve seen in decades,” said Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, president. from Vietnam’s Red. Cross Society.
VNA reported that more than 7,200 hectares of food crops (17,791 acres) were destroyed and more than 691,000 cattle and poultry died or were washed away by the floods. Sixteen national highways and 161,880 meters (101 miles) of local highways in four provinces were also damaged. Thousands of homes were also submerged.
Damage from the storm is also exacerbating the livelihoods of many Vietnamese already suffering the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The virus has only infected a relatively small number of people in Vietnam, thanks in part to the government’s quick response, experts say. However, Vietnam’s decision to seal its borders has dealt a severe blow to its valuable tourism industry.
“We are seeing a deadly double disaster before our eyes, as these floods compound the hardships caused by Covid-19,” Christopher Rassi, director of the IRFC secretary general’s office, said in a statement last week. “These floods are the last straw and will push millions more towards the edge of poverty.”
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