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HANOI: Thousands of people fled their homes in Vietnam on Saturday (Nov. 14) as Typhoon Vamco rushed into central regions already ravaged 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 on Sunday, likely near Hue.
Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in four central provinces, according to the disaster management authority, 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.
READ: Vietnam addresses the deadly aftermath of the typhoon as a new storm threatens the region
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 more than eight million people living in central Vietnam,” said Nguyen Thi Xuan Thu, president of the Vietnam Red Cross Society.
“Every time they start to rebuild their lives and their livelihoods, they are hit by another storm.”
READ: Philippines rushes to rescue thousands after Typhoon Vamco
Typhoon Vamco has already caused devastation in the Philippines.
Emergency response teams were dispatched to the Northeast on Saturday, where more than 340,000 people have been affected by the severe flooding that followed Vamco, which killed at least 33 people across the country, disaster agencies said. .
Twenty of the deaths were in the provinces of Cagayán, Isabela and Nueva Vizcaya, which have become the focus of rescue efforts.
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 has compounded the impact.
